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Mocuba fire, 3 September 2018 Mocuba, Namacurra

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2018, 10:46 UTC

The fire started on 3 September 2018 in Mocuba, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,063 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 70th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 7 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
23,063ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
3 Sept 2018 – 21 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
3 Sept
2018
Heat detections
1,584
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
13.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

34567891213141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
49km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 30 Sept.

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,988 ha in 2016, 3,716 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,295 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mocuba where it started
    18,076 ha reached on 27 Aug
    2.0 %
  2. Namacurra
    5,147 ha reached on 6 Sept
    2.5 %

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)
27 Aug 34.3 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Aug 28.7 °C 48 % 37 km/h 1.4 mm Moderate 16
29 Aug 26.0 °C 63 % 46 km/h 2.5 mm Low 7
30 Aug 27.4 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
31 Aug 27.2 °C 45 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
1 Sept 28.9 °C 48 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 19
2 Sept 32.6 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Sept 34.5 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Sept 35.8 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Sept 35.8 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Sept 35.2 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Sept 34.2 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Sept 34.4 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept 36.4 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Sept 23.6 °C 64 % 43 km/h 6.6 mm Very low 4
11 Sept 26.0 °C 53 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Low 7
12 Sept 30.5 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Sept 33.7 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Sept 34.2 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Sept 35.5 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Sept 35.8 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Sept 34.6 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Sept 36.2 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Sept 36.6 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept 37.9 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Sept 33.4 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Sept after 31.6 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Sept after 32.2 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.7 mm High 27
24 Sept after 34.2 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Sept after 35.5 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Sept after 37.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Sept after 38.3 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Sept after 36.9 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Sept after 36.1 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Sept after 29.8 °C 47 % 56 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Aug 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 · 1,584Every 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 Mocuba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 September 2018 and 21 September 2018: 19 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 23,063 hectares (230.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mocuba (18,076 ha, 2.0 %); Namacurra (5,147 ha, 2.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % 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.