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Maúa fire, September 2022 Maúa, Majune

Out · last detection 10 Oct 2022, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 30 September 2022 in Maúa, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,210 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 64th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 35 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.

Burnt area
9,210ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
30 Sept 2022 – 9 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
30 Sept
2022
Heat detections
417
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Oct 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Sept9 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

3012345678910

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
45km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7 ha in 2016, 2,803 ha in 2017, 241 ha in 2019, 930 ha in 2020, 1,962 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,320 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Maúa where it started
    6,227 ha reached on 28 Sept
    0.8 %
  2. Majune
    3,040 ha reached on 2 Oct
    0.3 %

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)
28 Sept 28.1 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Sept 28.0 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Sept 27.7 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Oct 28.6 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Oct 29.0 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Oct 29.0 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Oct 30.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Oct 29.8 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Oct 30.6 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Oct 29.5 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Oct 29.7 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Oct 28.4 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Oct after 29.2 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Oct after 28.3 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Oct after 28.4 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Oct after 29.2 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Oct after 30.0 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Oct after 29.3 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Oct after 29.2 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Oct after 29.1 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Oct after 27.7 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Oct after 27.4 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
20 Oct after 29.7 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
21 Oct after 30.2 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Oct after 30.4 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Oct after 30.3 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Oct after 31.2 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Sept 2022
After · 16 Oct 2022

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 · 417Every 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 Maúa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 September 2022 and 9 October 2022: 10 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 9,210 hectares (92.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maúa (6,227 ha, 0.8 %); Majune (3,040 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 45 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.