Mecula fire, 15 August 2020 Mecula
The fire started on 15 August 2020 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,510 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 404th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 138 in Mozambique in 2020, of 193.
- Burnt area
- 3,510ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 15 Aug 2020 – 19 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 15 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 101
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,226 ha in 2016, 358 ha in 2017, 579 ha in 2018, 636 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,858 ha that had burned before.
- 996 ha Mecula fire, August 2016 4,107 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 526 ha Mecula fire, July 2019 4,617 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 394 ha Mecula fire, July 2018 16,120 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 185 ha Mecula fire, July 2018 4,251 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mecula where it started3,530 ha reached on 13 Aug0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Aug | 30.3 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 16 Aug | 31.0 °C | 31 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 17 Aug | 30.0 °C | 39 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Aug | 30.6 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Aug | 31.2 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Aug after | 29.3 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 21 Aug after | 28.6 °C | 43 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 44 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 23 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 40 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 25 Aug after | 31.8 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 26 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Aug after | 30.9 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 28 Aug after | 31.2 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Aug after | 30.0 °C | 39 % | 34 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.
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 · 101Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,120 haMecula30 July 2018 · 15 days · 6 km away
- 18,777 haMecula16 August 2026 · 30 days · 18 km away
- 11,391 haMecula1 August 2020 · 10 days · 24 km away
- 31,277 haMecula19 September 2022 · 39 days · 25 km away
- 28,669 haMecula29 August 2021 · 14 days · 38 km away
- 10,632 haMecula7 September 2017 · 11 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mecula fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2020 and 19 August 2020: 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 3,510 hectares (35.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mecula (3,530 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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
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.