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Moatize fire, September 2022 Moatize, Tsangano

Out · last detection 10 Oct 2022, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 29 September 2022 in Moatize, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,876 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 68th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 114 with a page). Number 132 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.

Burnt area
3,876ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
29 Sept 2022 – 10 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
29 Sept
2022
Heat detections
147
in a single hotspot: 78 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Oct 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Sept10 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

291234567910

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
45km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,083 ha in 2016, 1,692 ha in 2017, 596 ha in 2018, 804 ha in 2019, 1,315 ha in 2020, 1,738 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,386 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Moatize where it started
    3,611 ha reached on 27 Sept
    0.4 %
  2. Tsangano
    280 ha reached on 2 Oct
    0.1 %

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)
29 Sept 30.0 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Sept 31.4 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Oct 32.2 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Oct 32.3 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Oct 33.6 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Oct 35.2 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Oct 34.5 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Oct 34.4 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Oct 34.4 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Oct 32.2 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Oct 31.5 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Oct 33.5 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Oct after 31.8 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Oct after 32.3 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Oct after 33.2 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Oct after 34.4 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Oct after 34.3 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Oct after 32.4 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Oct after 33.1 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Oct after 32.3 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Oct after 31.0 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm High 33
20 Oct after 32.3 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Sept 2022
After · 17 Oct 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 · 147Every 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 29 September 2022 and 10 October 2022: 12 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 3,876 hectares (38.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Moatize (3,611 ha, 0.4 %); Tsangano (280 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.