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Mecula fire, 16 August 2016 Mecula

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2016, 22:07 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2016 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,905 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 67th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 28 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
8,905ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
16 Aug 2016 – 25 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Aug
2016
Heat detections
288
in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug25 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

16171819202122232425

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
35km/h · peak gust
30%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
    8,941 ha reached on 15 Aug
    0.5 %

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)
16 Aug 32.0 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Aug 32.7 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Aug 33.2 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug 30.7 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug 31.5 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Aug 31.2 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Aug 32.0 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Aug 32.2 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug 30.7 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Aug 30.7 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Aug after 31.1 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Aug after 32.3 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Aug after 29.9 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Aug after 31.5 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug after 31.9 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Aug after 31.4 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Sept after 28.7 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Sept after 29.6 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Sept after 30.3 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Sept after 30.9 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Aug 2016
After · 1 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 · 288Every 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 16 August 2016 and 25 August 2016: 10 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 8,905 hectares (89.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (8,941 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 35 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.