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Mogovolas fire, October 2018 Mogovolas, Meconta

Out · last detection 20 Oct 2018, 10:22 UTC

The fire started on 12 October 2018 in Mogovolas, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,062 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 142th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 74 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
5,062ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
12 Oct 2018 – 19 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
12 Oct
2018
Heat detections
164
in a single hotspot: 32 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Oct19 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

121314151617181920

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
42km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.5 mm on 20 Oct.

This area had burned before

11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 549 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Mogovolas where it started
    4,585 ha reached on 11 Oct
    1.0 %
  2. Meconta
    504 ha reached on 15 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)
12 Oct 32.8 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
13 Oct 33.9 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
14 Oct 33.9 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
15 Oct 34.4 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
16 Oct 37.0 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Oct 34.3 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Oct 36.2 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Oct 34.2 °C 45 % 32 km/h 5.9 mm Low 6
20 Oct after 31.4 °C 51 % 32 km/h 8.5 mm Very low 2

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Oct 2018
After · 26 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 · 164Every 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 12 October 2018 and 19 October 2018: 8 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 5,062 hectares (50.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mogovolas (4,585 ha, 1.0 %); Meconta (504 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.