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Mecula fire, 16 September 2020 Mecula

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2020, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 16 September 2020 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,067 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 535th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 188 in Mozambique in 2020, of 193.

Burnt area
3,067ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
16 Sept 2020 – 19 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Sept
2020
Heat detections
104
in a single hotspot: 84 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
726MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

16171819

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
31km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 149 ha in 2016, 557 ha in 2017, 604 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Mecula where it started
    3,087 ha reached on 16 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)
16 Sept 31.9 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Sept 32.3 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Sept 31.1 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Sept 31.4 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Sept after 30.2 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Sept after 30.0 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Sept after 32.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Sept after 29.4 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Sept after 31.4 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Sept after 30.0 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Sept after 31.9 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Sept after 31.2 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Sept after 29.3 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Sept after 32.1 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Sept 2020
After · 26 Sept 2020

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 · 104Every 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 September 2020 and 19 September 2020: 4 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 3,067 hectares (30.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (3,087 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.