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Massingir fire, August 2023 Massingir

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2023, 23:15 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2023 in Massingir, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,426 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 34th largest in Gaza since 2016 (of 78 with a page). Number 63 in Mozambique in 2023, of 128.

Burnt area
4,426ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
9 Aug 2023 – 15 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Aug
2023
Heat detections
159
in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug15 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
47km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 812 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Massingir where it started
    4,443 ha reached on 9 Aug
    0.8 %

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)
9 Aug 25.4 °C 38 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Aug 25.4 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Aug 23.7 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
12 Aug 25.3 °C 42 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
13 Aug 28.1 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
14 Aug 31.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Aug 29.9 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Aug after 23.1 °C 59 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
17 Aug after 27.2 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 24
18 Aug after 31.6 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Aug after 24.9 °C 61 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm High 25
20 Aug after 31.1 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Aug after 30.6 °C 46 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Aug after 32.9 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Aug after 36.0 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Aug after 24.2 °C 43 % 50 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 39
25 Aug after 30.7 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Aug 2023
After · 22 Aug 2023

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 · 159Every 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

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Massingir fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 August 2023 and 15 August 2023: 7 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 4,426 hectares (44.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Massingir (4,443 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 47 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.

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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.