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Mecubúri fire, 8 September 2017 Mecubúri

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2017, 22:52 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2017 in Mecubúri, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,217 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 134th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 62 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
5,217ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
8 Sept 2017 – 15 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
8 Sept
2017
Heat detections
165
in a single hotspot: 71 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
42km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 86 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mecubúri where it started
    5,254 ha reached on 1 Sept
    0.7 %

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)
8 Sept 30.9 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Sept 30.3 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Sept 28.8 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Sept 30.7 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Sept 30.4 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Sept 31.2 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept 31.4 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Sept 31.1 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Sept after 31.3 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Sept after 32.8 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept after 32.5 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Sept after 31.7 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Sept after 31.9 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Sept after 29.4 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Sept after 31.5 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Sept after 32.2 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Sept after 29.4 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Sept after 30.8 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2017
After · 22 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 · 165Every 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 8 September 2017 and 15 September 2017: 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 5,217 hectares (52.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecubúri (5,254 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.