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Mecula fire, 9 October 2016 Mecula, Mavago

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2016, 22:52 UTC

The fire started on 9 October 2016 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,031 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 155th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 59 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
6,031ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
9 Oct 2016 – 15 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
9 Oct
2016
Heat detections
199
in a single hotspot: 114 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Oct15 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131415

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
38km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 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
    5,000 ha reached on 9 Oct
    0.3 %
  2. Mavago
    1,072 ha reached on 9 Oct
    0.1 %

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)
9 Oct 29.8 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Oct 28.6 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Oct 31.3 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Oct 30.8 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Oct 31.4 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Oct 31.5 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Oct 30.5 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
16 Oct after 30.2 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Oct after 30.8 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Oct after 31.5 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Oct after 29.8 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Oct after 30.8 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Oct after 31.8 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Oct after 31.7 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Oct after 32.2 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Oct after 31.5 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Oct after 31.0 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Oct 2016
After · 22 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 · 199Every 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 9 October 2016 and 15 October 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 6,031 hectares (60.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mecula (5,000 ha, 0.3 %); Mavago (1,072 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.