Skip to content
worldfires
MZ · Mozambique · →

Mecula fire, 21 July 2018 Mecula

Out · last detection 29 Jul 2018, 22:26 UTC

The fire started on 21 July 2018 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,589 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 252th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 91 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
4,589ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
21 Jul 2018 – 29 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Jul
2018
Heat detections
153
in a single hotspot: 143 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jul29 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
35km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 71 ha in 2016, 1,468 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,429 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mecula where it started
    4,614 ha reached on 21 Jul
    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)
21 Jul 27.2 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Jul 29.0 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Jul 27.7 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Jul 27.2 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jul 28.2 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jul 27.8 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Jul 28.7 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Jul 28.7 °C 38 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Jul 28.2 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Jul after 28.8 °C 41 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Jul after 28.9 °C 39 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Aug after 29.0 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
2 Aug after 29.4 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Aug after 29.5 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Aug after 27.7 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Aug after 30.4 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Aug after 30.0 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Aug after 30.9 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Aug after 31.3 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jul 2018
After · 5 Aug 2018

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 · 153Every 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 21 July 2018 and 29 July 2018: 9 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 4,589 hectares (45.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (4,614 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.