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Mecula fire, 29 August 2017 Mecula

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2017, 22:32 UTC

The fire started on 29 August 2017 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,523 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 259th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 79 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
4,523ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
29 Aug 2017 – 1 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
29 Aug
2017
Heat detections
88
in a single hotspot: 101 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Aug1 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2930311

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
38km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,030 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mecula where it started
    4,549 ha reached on 29 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)
29 Aug 28.7 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Aug 30.0 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Aug 29.0 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Sept 31.1 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Sept after 29.8 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Sept after 29.3 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
4 Sept after 29.0 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Sept after 30.1 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Sept after 31.4 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Sept after 30.4 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Sept after 32.0 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Sept after 31.3 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Sept after 31.2 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Sept after 31.9 °C 26 % 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 · 22 Aug 2017
After · 8 Sept 2017

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 · 88Every 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 29 August 2017 and 1 September 2017: 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 4,523 hectares (45.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (4,549 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 38 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.