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Mecula fire, 3 August 2018 Mecula

Out · last detection 12 Aug 2018, 23:03 UTC

The fire started on 3 August 2018 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,238 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 140th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 49 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
6,238ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
3 Aug 2018 – 12 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
3 Aug
2018
Heat detections
233
in a single hotspot: 74 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Aug12 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

456789101112

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
44km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,240 ha in 2016, 653 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Mecula where it started
    6,274 ha reached on 4 Aug
    0.4 %

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)
3 Aug 29.4 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Aug 27.7 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Aug 30.1 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Aug 29.8 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Aug 30.7 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Aug 31.3 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Aug 30.5 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Aug 29.3 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Aug 29.7 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug 29.2 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Aug after 29.9 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Aug after 29.5 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Aug after 29.4 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Aug after 28.9 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Aug after 29.0 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Aug after 28.9 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Aug after 29.8 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug after 30.0 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug after 29.1 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug after 28.5 °C 35 % 26 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 · 27 Jul 2018
After · 19 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 · 233Every 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 3 August 2018 and 12 August 2018: 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 6,238 hectares (62.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (6,274 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.