How long did the Mecula fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 September 2018 and 30 September 2018: 5 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 3,754 hectares (37.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Mecula (3,782 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.

MZ · Mozambique · 2018-09-26 → 2018-09-30

Mecula fire, 26 September 2018 Mecula

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2018, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 26 September 2018 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,754 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 358th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 133 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area: 3,754ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 5days; 26 Sept 2018 – 30 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 26 Sept; 2018
Heat detections: 104; in a single hotspot: 95 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 30 Sept 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Sept30 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2627282930

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

39km/h · peak gust

29%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 2 Oct.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,395 ha in 2016, 166 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

Mecula where it started

3,782 ha reached on 23 Sept

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)
26 Sept	33.7 °C	37 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
27 Sept	31.2 °C	41 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
28 Sept	32.3 °C	32 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
29 Sept	32.4 °C	29 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
30 Sept	32.3 °C	29 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
1 Oct after	30.3 °C	42 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
2 Oct after	30.8 °C	38 %	35 km/h	1.2 mm	High 23

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Sept 2018

After · 7 Oct 2018

Before After

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 · 104Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mecula fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 September 2018 and 30 September 2018: 5 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 3,754 hectares (37.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Mecula (3,782 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned