Skip to content
worldfires
MZ · Mozambique · →

Mecula fire, 10 July 2019 Mecula

Out · last detection 13 Jul 2019, 10:35 UTC

The fire started on 10 July 2019 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,617 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 247th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 85 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

Burnt area
4,617ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
10 Jul 2019 – 12 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
10 Jul
2019
Heat detections
141
in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
889MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jul12 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

10111213

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
36km/h · peak gust
39%lowest humidity

It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,612 ha in 2016, 981 ha in 2017, 1,998 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,938 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mecula where it started
    4,643 ha reached on 10 Jul
    0.3 %

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)
10 Jul 28.3 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 Jul 26.4 °C 43 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Jul 26.7 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Jul after 27.2 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Jul after 26.8 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Jul after 27.6 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Jul after 27.8 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Jul after 28.2 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Jul after 28.2 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Jul after 28.1 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Jul after 28.6 °C 38 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Jul after 30.1 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Jul after 24.6 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jul 2019
After · 19 Jul 2019

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 · 141Every 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 10 July 2019 and 12 July 2019: 3 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 4,617 hectares (46.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (4,643 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.3 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.