Mecula fire, 14 October 2021 Mecula
The fire started on 14 October 2021 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,990 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 81th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 577 with a page). Number 21 in Mozambique in 2021, of 233.
- Burnt area
- 7,990ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 14 Oct 2021 – 19 Oct 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Oct
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 253
- in a single hotspot: 92 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.7GW
- 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 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 21 Oct.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,863 ha in 2016, 3,490 ha in 2017, 2,666 ha in 2018, 3,634 ha in 2019, 194 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,565 ha that had burned before.
- 3,460 ha Mecula fire, October 2017 6,071 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,069 ha Mecula fire, August 2019 3,897 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,313 ha Mecula fire, August 2016 12,038 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,784 ha Mecula fire, October 2018 3,099 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 855 ha Mecula fire, August 2018 5,467 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 141 ha Mecula fire, September 2020 4,204 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 108 ha Mecula fire, September 2019 5,309 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 26 ha Mecula fire, September 2018 12,474 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mecula where it started8,041 ha reached on 13 Oct0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Oct | 33.6 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 Oct | 33.2 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Oct | 33.9 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Oct | 30.7 °C | 41 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Oct | 31.2 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Oct | 30.7 °C | 41 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Oct after | 31.3 °C | 42 % | 35 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Oct after | 29.9 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 14 |
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 · 253Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mecula fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 October 2021 and 19 October 2021: 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 7,990 hectares (79.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mecula (8,041 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.
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.