Skip to content
worldfires
MZ · Mozambique · →

Mecula fire, 12 October 2018 Mecula

Out · last detection 29 Oct 2018, 10:54 UTC

The fire started on 12 October 2018 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,868 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 27th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 577 with a page). Number 13 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
14,868ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
12 Oct 2018 – 28 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Oct
2018
Heat detections
444
in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Oct28 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171920212223242526272829

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
49km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,248 ha in 2016, 3,535 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,967 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mecula where it started
    14,970 ha reached on 11 Oct
    0.8 %

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)
11 Oct 31.6 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Oct 30.9 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.6 mm High 24
13 Oct 32.0 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
14 Oct 32.8 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Oct 32.8 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Oct 34.1 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Oct 33.4 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
18 Oct 31.8 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.8 mm High 23
19 Oct 33.0 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Oct 33.3 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
21 Oct 28.6 °C 54 % 45 km/h 7.0 mm Low 6
22 Oct 27.1 °C 41 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
23 Oct 28.0 °C 35 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Oct 29.4 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Oct 30.5 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Oct 30.6 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Oct 30.3 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Oct 30.9 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm High 29
29 Oct after 30.1 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Oct after 30.1 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
31 Oct after 32.7 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Nov after 33.4 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Nov after 32.8 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Nov after 32.9 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Nov after 31.9 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.9 mm High 26
5 Nov after 31.7 °C 39 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Nov after 34.3 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Nov after 32.8 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Nov after 34.2 °C 34 % 31 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 · 5 Oct 2018
After · 4 Nov 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 · 444Every 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 12 October 2018 and 28 October 2018: 17 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 14,868 hectares (148.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (14,970 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 49 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.

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.