Marrupa fire, 17 September 2021 Mecula, Marrupa
The fire started on 17 September 2021 in Marrupa, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,464 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 11th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 3 in Mozambique in 2021, of 233.
- Burnt area
- 21,464ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 17 Sept 2021 – 29 Sept 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Sept
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 621
- in a single hotspot: 59 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.8GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,327 ha in 2016, 4,683 ha in 2017, 4,103 ha in 2018, 12,896 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 16,803 ha that had burned before.
- 9,054 ha Mecula fire, October 2019 11,534 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,300 ha Mecula fire, October 2017 6,788 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,252 ha Mecula fire, September 2016 5,792 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,120 ha Mecula fire, October 2019 4,594 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
21,558 ha reached on 15 Sept1.2 %
-
Marrupa where it started74 ha reached on 13 Sept0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Sept | 30.2 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 14 Sept | 31.3 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Sept | 30.1 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Sept | 30.7 °C | 39 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Sept | 31.9 °C | 36 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 18 Sept | 31.6 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Sept | 28.2 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Sept | 29.3 °C | 35 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Sept | 31.0 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Sept | 30.5 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Sept | 30.6 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Sept | 29.7 °C | 36 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Sept | 32.2 °C | 29 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Sept | 31.9 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Sept | 33.0 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Sept | 32.3 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 29 Sept | 32.7 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Oct after | 32.6 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Oct after | 32.4 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Oct after | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Oct after | 32.6 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Oct after | 32.1 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 6 Oct after | 32.2 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Oct after | 34.3 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 8 Oct after | 31.1 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 9 Oct after | 31.1 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 10 Oct after | 32.3 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
Detections table · 621Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Marrupa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2021 and 29 September 2021: 13 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 21,464 hectares (214.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mecula (21,558 ha, 1.2 %); Marrupa (74 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mozambique (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.