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MZ · Mozambique · →

Milange fire, 4 October 2022 Milange, Lugela

Out · last detection 3 Nov 2022, 11:06 UTC

The fire started on 4 October 2022 in Milange, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,080 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 62th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 11 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.

Burnt area
25,080ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
30days
4 Oct 2022 – 2 Nov 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
4 Oct
2022
Heat detections
1,567
in a single hotspot: 125 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
15.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Nov 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Oct2 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

45678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
40km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19,282 ha in 2016, 15,324 ha in 2017, 13,425 ha in 2018, 15,859 ha in 2019, 13,397 ha in 2020, 8,773 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 24,630 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Milange where it started
    21,837 ha reached on 28 Sept
    3.9 %
  2. Lugela
    3,400 ha reached on 4 Oct
    0.6 %

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)
28 Sept 30.9 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Sept 30.6 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Sept 32.3 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Oct 32.9 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Oct 33.4 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Oct 33.9 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Oct 35.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Oct 35.4 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Oct 35.1 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Oct 35.3 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Oct 33.2 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.6 mm High 37
9 Oct 33.5 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Oct 33.8 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Oct 32.5 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Oct 32.7 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Oct 34.0 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Oct 35.0 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Oct 34.3 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Oct 33.6 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Oct 33.5 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Oct 32.5 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Oct 31.2 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Oct 32.2 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
21 Oct 34.6 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Oct 35.5 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Oct 35.2 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Oct 36.1 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
25 Oct 34.9 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Oct 36.6 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
27 Oct 36.7 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Oct 36.9 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Oct 31.1 °C 47 % 32 km/h 4.9 mm Low 7
30 Oct 30.5 °C 44 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 16
31 Oct 35.5 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
1 Nov 33.5 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
2 Nov 32.3 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
3 Nov after 31.7 °C 43 % 25 km/h 0.7 mm High 22
4 Nov after 33.2 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm High 27
5 Nov after 33.8 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.9 mm High 24
6 Nov after 34.2 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.6 mm High 28
7 Nov after 34.3 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Nov after 35.7 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
9 Nov after 34.1 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
10 Nov after 33.9 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
11 Nov after 33.2 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
12 Nov after 33.4 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Sept 2022
After · 9 Nov 2022

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 · 1,567Every 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 4 October 2022 and 2 November 2022: 30 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 25,080 hectares (250.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Milange (21,837 ha, 3.9 %); Lugela (3,400 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 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

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.