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Montepuez fire, 16 August 2016 Montepuez

Out · last detection 22 Aug 2016, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2016 in Montepuez, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,053 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 114th largest in Cabo Delgado since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 187 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
3,053ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
16 Aug 2016 – 21 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Aug
2016
Heat detections
95
in a single hotspot: 137 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug21 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

16171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
41km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Montepuez where it started
    3,071 ha reached on 16 Aug
    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)
16 Aug 30.1 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Aug 31.1 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Aug 31.1 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Aug 29.0 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Aug 30.7 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Aug 29.6 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Aug after 30.5 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Aug after 31.1 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Aug after 29.3 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Aug after 28.9 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Aug after 29.3 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Aug after 29.7 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Aug after 28.7 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Aug after 27.2 °C 46 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Aug after 30.0 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Aug after 28.4 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Aug 2016
After · 28 Aug 2016

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 · 95Every 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 Montepuez fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2016 and 21 August 2016: 6 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 3,053 hectares (30.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Montepuez (3,071 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.