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Milange fire, 10 September 2019 Milange, Mocuba, Derre

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2019, 11:06 UTC

The fire started on 10 September 2019 in Milange, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,654 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 400th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 82 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

Burnt area
4,654ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
10 Sept 2019 – 24 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
10 Sept
2019
Heat detections
199
in a single hotspot: 229 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
49km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.8 mm on 25 Sept.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,474 ha in 2016, 884 ha in 2017, 1,175 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,687 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Milange where it started
    3,082 ha reached on 10 Sept
    0.6 %
  2. Mocuba
    808 ha reached on 18 Sept
    0.1 %
  3. Derre
    792 ha reached on 10 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)
10 Sept 30.6 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 Sept 32.4 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Sept 35.3 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Sept 34.8 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Sept 35.8 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Sept 33.0 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Sept 31.1 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Sept 30.6 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Sept 29.7 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Sept 30.7 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Sept 30.4 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Sept 31.6 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Sept 34.2 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Sept 35.4 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Sept 34.0 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Sept after 28.3 °C 42 % 44 km/h 4.8 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Sept 2019
After · 1 Oct 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 · 199Every 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 Milange fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 September 2019 and 24 September 2019: 15 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 4,654 hectares (46.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Milange (3,082 ha, 0.6 %); Mocuba (808 ha, 0.1 %); Derre (792 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.