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MZ · Mozambique · →

Mecula fire, 16 August 2019 Mecula

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2019, 22:51 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2019 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,600 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 383th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 131 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

Burnt area
3,600ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
16 Aug 2019 – 21 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Aug
2019
Heat detections
89
in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
312MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug21 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021

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
37km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,389 ha in 2016, 1,012 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,663 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mecula where it started
    3,623 ha reached on 16 Aug
    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)
16 Aug 31.3 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Aug 31.1 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Aug 30.3 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Aug 30.0 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Aug 29.7 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug 29.0 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Aug after 29.7 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Aug after 30.1 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug after 30.2 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Aug after 32.2 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Aug after 32.7 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Aug after 32.3 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Aug after 31.1 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug after 30.5 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Aug after 30.3 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Aug after 30.9 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Aug 2019
After · 28 Aug 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 · 89Every 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 16 August 2019 and 21 August 2019: 6 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 3,600 hectares (36.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (3,623 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.