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Moatize fire, September 2018 Moatize

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2018, 23:36 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2018 in Moatize, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,645 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 11th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 114 with a page). Number 29 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
9,645ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
12 Sept 2018 – 21 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Sept
2018
Heat detections
450
in a single hotspot: 115 MW
Danger at start
23
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122

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
49km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 30 Sept.

This area had burned before

78% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,710 ha in 2016, 4,343 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,540 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Moatize where it started
    9,680 ha reached on 12 Sept
    1.1 %

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)
12 Sept 27.0 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
13 Sept 29.3 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Sept 30.1 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Sept 30.6 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Sept 30.5 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Sept 30.5 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Sept 30.9 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Sept 30.1 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Sept 30.6 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Sept 29.1 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Sept after 27.8 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Sept after 26.5 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Sept after 28.4 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Sept after 29.5 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Sept after 32.3 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Sept after 31.7 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Sept after 30.7 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Sept after 30.2 °C 24 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Sept after 23.7 °C 52 % 62 km/h 4.1 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2018
After · 28 Sept 2018

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 · 450Every 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 Moatize fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2018 and 21 September 2018: 10 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 9,645 hectares (96.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Moatize (9,680 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % 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.