Skip to content
worldfires
MZ · Mozambique · →

Massinga fire, 5 September 2018 Massinga

Out · last detection 20 Sept 2018, 11:23 UTC

The fire started on 5 September 2018 in Massinga, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,113 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 21th largest in Inhambane since 2016 (of 26 with a page). Number 196 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
3,113ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
5 Sept 2018 – 19 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
5 Sept
2018
Heat detections
128
in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

5678111213141516181920

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
58km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.9 mm on 29 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Massinga where it started
    3,123 ha reached on 4 Sept
    0.4 %

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)
5 Sept 34.2 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Sept 33.0 °C 35 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept 32.6 °C 34 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Sept 31.5 °C 41 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept 24.1 °C 79 % 53 km/h 12.9 mm Very low 0
10 Sept 23.6 °C 42 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Low 9
11 Sept 26.8 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
12 Sept 29.1 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Sept 30.8 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Sept 31.3 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Sept 33.3 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Sept 31.1 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Sept 33.5 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Sept 35.3 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Sept 35.6 °C 25 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept after 32.4 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
21 Sept after 32.0 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
22 Sept after 33.0 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Sept after 31.9 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Sept after 33.2 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Sept after 32.9 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Sept after 34.7 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Sept after 34.1 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Sept after 34.3 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Sept after 33.9 °C 32 % 58 km/h 2.9 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 29 Aug 2018
After · 26 Sept 2018

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 · 128Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Massinga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2018 and 19 September 2018: 15 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 3,113 hectares (31.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Massinga (3,123 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.