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Mecubúri fire, 15 August 2016 Mecubúri

Out · last detection 23 Aug 2016, 22:46 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2016 in Mecubúri, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,158 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 359th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 173 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
3,158ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
15 Aug 2016 – 22 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Aug
2016
Heat detections
102
in a single hotspot: 34 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
715MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1516171820212223

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
41km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 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. Mecubúri where it started
    3,172 ha reached on 9 Aug
    0.4 %

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 Aug 30.7 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Aug 29.5 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Aug 30.2 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Aug 30.6 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Aug 29.5 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Aug 31.0 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Aug 30.8 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Aug 31.5 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Aug after 31.6 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Aug after 28.1 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm High 37
25 Aug after 28.3 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Aug after 29.5 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Aug after 29.4 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Aug after 28.7 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Aug after 27.5 °C 47 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Aug after 30.2 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Aug after 27.9 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept after 25.4 °C 52 % 47 km/h 0.7 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2016
After · 29 Aug 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 · 102Every 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 Mecubúri fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2016 and 22 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 3,158 hectares (31.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecubúri (3,172 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.