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Mecula fire, 8 October 2016 Mecula, Mavago

Out · last detection 12 Oct 2016, 22:08 UTC

The fire started on 8 October 2016 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,089 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 213th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 79 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
5,089ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
8 Oct 2016 – 11 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Oct
2016
Heat detections
181
in a single hotspot: 139 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Oct11 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

89101112

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
37km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days 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
    2,894 ha reached on 8 Oct
    0.2 %
  2. Mavago
    2,229 ha reached on 8 Oct
    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)
8 Oct 31.0 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
9 Oct 30.1 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 Oct 29.1 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
11 Oct 31.8 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Oct after 31.3 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Oct after 31.8 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Oct after 32.0 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Oct after 30.9 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
16 Oct after 30.9 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Oct after 31.3 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Oct after 32.1 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Oct after 30.2 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Oct after 31.4 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Oct after 32.5 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Oct 2016
After · 18 Oct 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 · 181Every 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 8 October 2016 and 11 October 2016: 4 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 5,089 hectares (50.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mecula (2,894 ha, 0.2 %); Mavago (2,229 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.