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Mogovolas fire, October 2017 Liúpo, Angoche, Mogovolas

Out · last detection 11 Oct 2017, 10:34 UTC

The fire started on 8 October 2017 in Mogovolas, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,637 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 159th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 75 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
4,637ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
8 Oct 2017 – 11 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
8 Oct
2017
Heat detections
99
in a single hotspot: 69 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Oct11 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

891011

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
44km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,254 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Liúpo
    2,397 ha reached on 8 Oct
    1.1 %
  2. Angoche
    1,337 ha reached on 9 Oct
    0.4 %
  3. Mogovolas where it started
    927 ha reached on 7 Oct
    0.2 %

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)
8 Oct 33.5 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Oct 34.3 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Oct 35.1 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Oct 36.9 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Oct after 33.8 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
13 Oct after 31.8 °C 34 % 49 km/h 0.6 mm High 37
14 Oct after 28.4 °C 45 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
15 Oct after 30.5 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Oct after 34.0 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Oct after 36.8 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Oct after 37.1 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Oct after 35.6 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Oct after 36.7 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Oct after 34.2 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.4 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Oct 2017
After · 18 Oct 2017

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 · 99Every 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 Mogovolas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 October 2017 and 11 October 2017: 4 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 4,637 hectares (46.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Liúpo (2,397 ha, 1.1 %); Angoche (1,337 ha, 0.4 %); Mogovolas (927 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.