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MZ · Mozambique · →

Moatize fire, 19 September 2019 Moatize

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

The fire started on 19 September 2019 in Moatize, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,820 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 45th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 115 with a page). Number 75 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

Burnt area
4,820ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
19 Sept 2019 – 24 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Sept
2019
Heat detections
164
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
49km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,501 ha in 2016, 2,536 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,318 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Moatize where it started
    4,836 ha reached on 12 Sept
    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)
19 Sept 29.3 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Sept 28.7 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Sept 30.9 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Sept 33.4 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Sept 35.0 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Sept 32.3 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Sept after 28.9 °C 39 % 60 km/h 0.9 mm High 33
26 Sept after 22.9 °C 40 % 55 km/h 0.6 mm High 30
27 Sept after 24.3 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Sept after 30.2 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Sept after 33.9 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Sept after 36.8 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Oct after 37.1 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Oct after 25.3 °C 70 % 46 km/h 0.5 mm High 23
3 Oct after 25.7 °C 63 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
4 Oct after 30.2 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 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 · 164Every 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 19 September 2019 and 24 September 2019: 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 4,820 hectares (48.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Moatize (4,836 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 49 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.