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Meconta fire, September 2016 Meconta

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2016, 10:09 UTC

The fire started on 11 September 2016 in Meconta, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,444 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 175th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 93 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
4,444ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
11 Sept 2016 – 18 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
11 Sept
2016
Heat detections
121
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

11131415161718

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
39km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 47 days 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. Meconta where it started
    4,475 ha reached on 9 Sept
    1.2 %

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)
11 Sept 31.3 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Sept 29.9 °C 44 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Sept 31.5 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Sept 30.6 °C 46 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Sept 30.8 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Sept 31.8 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Sept 32.7 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Sept 31.1 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Sept after 30.1 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Sept after 28.8 °C 50 % 30 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 21
21 Sept after 28.7 °C 49 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
22 Sept after 32.1 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Sept after 32.5 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Sept after 33.0 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Sept after 33.5 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Sept after 31.4 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Sept after 30.7 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Sept after 33.2 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Sept 2016
After · 25 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 · 121Every 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 Meconta fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2016 and 18 September 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 4,444 hectares (44.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Meconta (4,475 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % 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.