How long did the Mocuba fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 September 2017 and 23 October 2017: 28 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 44,276 hectares (442.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Milange (22,492 ha, 4.1 %); Lugela (16,909 ha, 2.7 %); Mocuba (5,144 ha, 0.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.

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.

MZ · Mozambique · 2017-09-26 → 2017-10-23

Mocuba fire, September 2017 Milange, Lugela, Mocuba

Out · last detection 24 Oct 2017, 22:40 UTC

The fire started on 26 September 2017 in Mocuba, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 44,276 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 32th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 3 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area: 44,276ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 28days; 26 Sept 2017 – 23 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit: 3; districts
Started on: 26 Sept; 2017
Heat detections: 2,724; in a single hotspot: 141 MW
Danger at start: 35; High · FWI index
Energy released: 30.6GW; sum of detected power

Play back 24 Oct 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Sept23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

262728301234567891011131415161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

41°high

48km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.7 mm on 29 Oct.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 31,213 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

Milange

22,492 ha reached on 24 Sept

4.1 %
Lugela

16,909 ha reached on 24 Sept

2.7 %
Mocuba where it started

5,144 ha reached on 23 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)
23 Sept	34.0 °C	24 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
24 Sept	28.6 °C	41 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
25 Sept	30.9 °C	37 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
26 Sept	36.9 °C	20 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
27 Sept	36.8 °C	24 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
28 Sept	33.0 °C	33 %	46 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 41
29 Sept	29.0 °C	50 %	40 km/h	1.0 mm	Moderate 19
30 Sept	30.3 °C	42 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
1 Oct	29.8 °C	38 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
2 Oct	30.9 °C	41 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
3 Oct	32.8 °C	31 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
4 Oct	33.4 °C	34 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
5 Oct	36.6 °C	19 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
6 Oct	37.1 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
7 Oct	36.2 °C	23 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
8 Oct	35.4 °C	24 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
9 Oct	36.8 °C	24 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
10 Oct	37.1 °C	27 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
11 Oct	37.0 °C	30 %	45 km/h	0.4 mm	Very high 46
12 Oct	29.0 °C	62 %	36 km/h	1.6 mm	Moderate 12
13 Oct	31.2 °C	26 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
14 Oct	26.3 °C	46 %	34 km/h	0.5 mm	High 26
15 Oct	31.8 °C	28 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
16 Oct	38.4 °C	10 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
17 Oct	40.4 °C	12 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
18 Oct	37.8 °C	22 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
19 Oct	36.1 °C	34 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
20 Oct	39.9 °C	14 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
21 Oct	36.6 °C	23 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
22 Oct	33.5 °C	47 %	40 km/h	2.0 mm	Moderate 16
23 Oct	33.5 °C	34 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
24 Oct after	36.1 °C	23 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
25 Oct after	38.1 °C	23 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
26 Oct after	39.5 °C	18 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
27 Oct after	41.1 °C	16 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
28 Oct after	33.6 °C	43 %	41 km/h	5.7 mm	Low 10
29 Oct after	24.5 °C	66 %	45 km/h	4.7 mm	Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 19 Sept 2017

After · 30 Oct 2017

Before After

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 · 2,724Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mocuba fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 September 2017 and 23 October 2017: 28 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 44,276 hectares (442.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Milange (22,492 ha, 4.1 %); Lugela (16,909 ha, 2.7 %); Mocuba (5,144 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, class Extreme.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned