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Mecula fire, 28 August 2016 Mecula

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2016, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 28 August 2016 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,230 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 497th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 577 with a page). Number 166 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
3,230ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
28 Aug 2016 – 3 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
28 Aug
2016
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 51 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
555MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Aug3 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2829303113

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
49km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Mecula where it started
    3,251 ha reached on 28 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
28 Aug 29.5 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Aug 28.6 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Aug 30.3 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Aug 30.1 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Sept 27.0 °C 42 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Sept 26.4 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Sept 28.5 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Sept after 28.4 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
5 Sept after 27.9 °C 46 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Sept after 28.7 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
7 Sept after 28.3 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Sept after 30.8 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
9 Sept after 31.3 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Sept after 30.1 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
11 Sept after 30.8 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Sept after 31.2 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Sept after 31.4 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Aug 2016
After · 10 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 · 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 Mecula fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 August 2016 and 3 September 2016: 7 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 3,230 hectares (32.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (3,251 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.