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Mecula fire, 15 August 2016 Mecula

Out · last detection 19 Aug 2016, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2016 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,100 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 520th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 178 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
3,100ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
15 Aug 2016 – 19 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Aug
2016
Heat detections
86
in a single hotspot: 153 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
856MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug19 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
34km/h · peak gust
29%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
    3,115 ha reached on 15 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)
15 Aug 32.6 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Aug 32.4 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Aug 33.1 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Aug 33.5 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug 31.0 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug after 31.9 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Aug after 31.5 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Aug after 32.2 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Aug after 32.7 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug after 31.2 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Aug after 31.0 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Aug after 31.5 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Aug after 32.5 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Aug after 30.5 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Aug after 31.3 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2016
After · 26 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 · 86Every 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 15 August 2016 and 19 August 2016: 5 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 3,100 hectares (31.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (3,115 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.