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Mavago fire, 17 September 2016 Mavago

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2016, 22:39 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2016 in Mavago, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,952 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 162th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 577 with a page). Number 61 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
5,952ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
17 Sept 2016 – 19 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 Sept
2016
Heat detections
167
in a single hotspot: 87 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

171819

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
39km/h · peak gust
27%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
    5,983 ha reached on 11 Sept
    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)
17 Sept 31.6 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Sept 31.1 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Sept 29.2 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Sept after 27.9 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm High 35
21 Sept after 30.9 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Sept after 29.7 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Sept after 31.2 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Sept after 31.7 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Sept after 32.0 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Sept after 32.3 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Sept after 31.5 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Sept after 31.5 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Sept after 29.8 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2016
After · 26 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 · 167Every 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 17 September 2016 and 19 September 2016: 3 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 5,952 hectares (59.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mavago (5,983 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 39 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.