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Mecula fire, 24 August 2016 Mecula

Out · last detection 2 Sept 2016, 22:57 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2016 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,101 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 65th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 27 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
9,101ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
24 Aug 2016 – 2 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
24 Aug
2016
Heat detections
281
in a single hotspot: 178 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug2 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

242526272829303112

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
47km/h · peak gust
27%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
    9,143 ha reached on 24 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)
24 Aug 30.5 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Aug 29.9 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Aug 30.5 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Aug 31.4 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Aug 30.0 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug 30.5 °C 31 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug 31.4 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Aug 31.1 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Sept 28.2 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Sept 28.6 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
3 Sept after 29.7 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Sept after 30.7 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Sept after 29.3 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Sept after 29.6 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Sept after 29.7 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Sept after 30.7 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Sept after 32.2 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Sept after 31.6 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
11 Sept after 31.9 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Sept after 31.9 °C 34 % 30 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 · 17 Aug 2016
After · 9 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 · 281Every 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 24 August 2016 and 2 September 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 9,101 hectares (91.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (9,143 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.