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Meconta fire, 15 September 2017 Meconta

Out · last detection 20 Sept 2017, 10:28 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2017 in Meconta, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,011 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 392th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 393 with a page). Number 193 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
3,011ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
15 Sept 2017 – 20 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Sept
2017
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
728MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept20 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920

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
34km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 686 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Meconta where it started
    3,033 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
15 Sept 32.0 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Sept 31.7 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Sept 32.9 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Sept 31.4 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Sept 32.0 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Sept 32.3 °C 38 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Sept after 30.9 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Sept after 31.3 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Sept after 32.6 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Sept after 29.4 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Sept after 29.9 °C 46 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
26 Sept after 34.1 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Sept after 33.7 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Sept after 31.5 °C 48 % 38 km/h 0.9 mm High 23
29 Sept after 30.3 °C 43 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
30 Sept after 31.6 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2017
After · 27 Sept 2017

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 · 84Every 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 15 September 2017 and 20 September 2017: 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 3,011 hectares (30.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Meconta (3,033 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 34 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.