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Mecula fire, 9 September 2019 Mecula

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2019, 22:58 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2019 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,024 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 568th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 577 with a page). Number 206 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

Burnt area
3,024ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
9 Sept 2019 – 10 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Sept
2019
Heat detections
125
in a single hotspot: 140 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

91011

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
31km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 247 ha in 2016, 204 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 403 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mecula where it started
    3,042 ha reached on 9 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)
9 Sept 29.3 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Sept 30.6 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Sept after 29.7 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
12 Sept after 32.4 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Sept after 32.3 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
14 Sept after 31.9 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Sept after 31.8 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Sept after 30.5 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Sept after 33.3 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Sept after 31.6 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
19 Sept after 31.8 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Sept after 32.5 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2019
After · 17 Sept 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 · 125Every 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 9 September 2019 and 10 September 2019: 2 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 3,024 hectares (30.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (3,042 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.

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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.