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Mavago fire, 19 September 2018 Mavago, Sanga

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2018, 22:39 UTC

The fire started on 19 September 2018 in Mavago, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,093 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 306th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 577 with a page). Number 117 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
4,093ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
19 Sept 2018 – 24 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
19 Sept
2018
Heat detections
155
in a single hotspot: 88 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
48km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,480 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mavago where it started
    4,078 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.4 %
  2. Sanga
    39 ha reached on 20 Sept
    0.0 %

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)
19 Sept 31.1 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept 31.3 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Sept 32.9 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
22 Sept 31.4 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Sept 28.8 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 33
24 Sept 28.8 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Sept after 29.8 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Sept after 33.2 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Sept after 30.6 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Sept after 32.2 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Sept after 32.0 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Sept after 31.2 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Oct after 28.0 °C 41 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Oct after 28.9 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.9 mm High 22
3 Oct after 30.4 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
4 Oct after 30.4 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Sept 2018
After · 1 Oct 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 · 155Every 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 19 September 2018 and 24 September 2018: 6 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 4,093 hectares (40.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mavago (4,078 ha, 0.4 %); Sanga (39 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.