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MZ · Mozambique · →

Mavago fire, August 2016 Mavago

Out · last detection 29 Aug 2016, 22:33 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2016 in Mavago, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,725 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 176th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 66 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
5,725ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
22 Aug 2016 – 29 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Aug
2016
Heat detections
156
in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
976MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug29 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526272829

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
49km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Mavago where it started
    5,769 ha reached on 21 Aug
    0.6 %

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)
22 Aug 31.4 °C 33 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Aug 30.2 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Aug 28.1 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
25 Aug 26.8 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Aug 28.1 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
27 Aug 27.9 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Aug 28.4 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Aug 27.8 °C 36 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Aug after 29.0 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
31 Aug after 28.8 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Sept after 25.5 °C 45 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Sept after 25.2 °C 46 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Sept after 27.1 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
4 Sept after 26.9 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
5 Sept after 27.2 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Sept after 27.4 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Sept after 27.2 °C 47 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
8 Sept after 30.4 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Aug 2016
After · 5 Sept 2016

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 · 156Every 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 Mavago fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 August 2016 and 29 August 2016: 8 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 5,725 hectares (57.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavago (5,769 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.