Milange fire, 9 September 2020 Milange, Lugela, Mocuba
The fire started on 9 September 2020 in Milange, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 41,830 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 34th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 841 with a page). Number 3 in Mozambique in 2020, of 193.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 41,830ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 33days
- 9 Sept 2020 – 11 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 9 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 2,403
- in a single hotspot: 137 MW
- Danger at start
- 19
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 831MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 12 Oct.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 26,868 ha in 2016, 23,451 ha in 2017, 23,373 ha in 2018, 25,595 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 38,624 ha that had burned before.
- 20,955 ha Milange fire, September 2016 99,267 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 20,830 ha Mocuba fire, September 2017 44,276 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 18,442 ha Lugela fire, September 2019 37,409 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12,075 ha Mocuba fire, September 2018 116,289 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,855 ha Milange fire, September 2018 21,540 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 386 ha Milange fire, September 2019 4,654 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Milange where it started25,230 ha reached on 10 Sept4.6 %
-
13,010 ha reached on 11 Sept2.1 %
-
3,854 ha reached on 9 Sept0.4 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 51 hectares of built-up land and about 10,000 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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 | 28.3 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 10 Sept | 30.0 °C | 34 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 11 Sept | 28.3 °C | 38 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 12 Sept | 28.8 °C | 41 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 13 Sept | 30.1 °C | 41 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 14 Sept | 33.2 °C | 32 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Sept | 34.3 °C | 31 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 16 Sept | 34.2 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 17 Sept | 35.1 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Sept | 32.5 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Sept | 33.1 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Sept | 34.0 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Sept | 35.1 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Sept | 30.2 °C | 38 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 23 Sept | 27.1 °C | 46 % | 40 km/h | 3.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 24 Sept | 30.3 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 25 Sept | 33.6 °C | 29 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Sept | 37.1 °C | 19 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Sept | 37.7 °C | 20 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Sept | 37.2 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Sept | 36.1 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Sept | 34.6 °C | 31 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Oct | 35.8 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 2 Oct | 38.0 °C | 21 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Oct | 36.4 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 4 Oct | 36.8 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Oct | 32.4 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Oct | 28.2 °C | 47 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Oct | 30.2 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Oct | 30.0 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Oct | 33.0 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Oct | 38.6 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 11 Oct | 35.3 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 9.8 mm | Low 8 |
| 12 Oct after | 27.6 °C | 64 % | 33 km/h | 3.3 mm | Very low 4 |
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 · 2,403Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 47,144 haDerre23 September 2022 · 34 days · 29 km away
- 99,267 haMilange7 September 2016 · 53 days · 33 km away
- 116,560 haDerre26 August 2016 · 45 days · 35 km away
- 72,800 haDerre4 September 2025 · 44 days · 35 km away
- 116,289 haMocuba2 September 2018 · 35 days · 36 km away
- 92,234 haLugela 5 October 2026 · 22 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Milange fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 September 2020 to 11 October 2020 (33 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 September 2020 to 10 October 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 41,830 hectares (418.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Milange (25,230 ha, 4.6 %); Lugela (13,010 ha, 2.1 %); Mocuba (3,854 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 10 October 2020 → 11 October 2020.
- Start date: 15 September 2020 → 9 September 2020.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 15 September 2020 to 10 October 2020. 2,403 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.