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Mocuba fire, 2 September 2018 Mocuba, Derre, Milange

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2018, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2018 in Mocuba, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 116,289 hectares from heat detections, spread across 5 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 11th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). The largest in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
116,289ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
2 Sept 2018 – 29 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
5
districts
Started on
2 Sept
2018
Heat detections
7,789
in a single hotspot: 285 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
95.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept29 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2345678912131415161718192021222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
49km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.4 mm on 30 Sept.

This area had burned before

72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 68,303 ha in 2016, 51,872 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 83,937 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mocuba where it started
    61,009 ha reached on 2 Sept
    6.9 %
  2. Derre
    31,925 ha reached on 2 Sept
    6.7 %
  3. Milange
    14,434 ha reached on 6 Sept
    2.6 %
  4. Lugela
    7,406 ha reached on 2 Sept
    1.2 %
  5. Morrumbala
    2,077 ha reached on 4 Sept
    0.3 %

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)
2 Sept 32.6 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Sept 33.3 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Sept 34.7 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept 34.6 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Sept 34.2 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Sept 33.2 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Sept 33.3 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Sept 35.3 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Sept 23.5 °C 64 % 44 km/h 3.2 mm Low 7
11 Sept 25.4 °C 55 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Low 10
12 Sept 30.4 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
13 Sept 33.7 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Sept 34.5 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Sept 35.2 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Sept 35.7 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Sept 34.2 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Sept 35.6 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Sept 35.6 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Sept 36.7 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Sept 34.1 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Sept 31.6 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Sept 32.3 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Sept 33.6 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Sept 34.9 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Sept 36.2 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Sept 37.1 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Sept 35.9 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Sept 36.0 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Sept after 29.7 °C 47 % 55 km/h 6.4 mm Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Aug 2018
After · 6 Oct 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 · 7,789Every 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 2 September 2018 and 29 September 2018: 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 116,289 hectares (1,162.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Mocuba (61,009 ha, 6.9 %); Derre (31,925 ha, 6.7 %); Milange (14,434 ha, 2.6 %); Lugela (7,406 ha, 1.2 %); Morrumbala (2,077 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.