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MZ · Mozambique · →

Muanza fire, 11 October 2018 Muanza

Out · last detection 17 Oct 2018, 22:28 UTC

The fire started on 11 October 2018 in Muanza, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,612 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 98th largest in Sofala since 2016 (of 212 with a page). Number 89 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
4,612ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
11 Oct 2018 – 17 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
11 Oct
2018
Heat detections
153
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Oct17 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

111213141617

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
43km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 18 Oct.

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,846 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,419 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Muanza where it started
    4,632 ha reached on 4 Oct
    0.6 %

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)
11 Oct 34.3 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Oct 34.5 °C 45 % 35 km/h 3.0 mm Low 11
13 Oct 32.7 °C 46 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm High 21
14 Oct 31.6 °C 46 % 38 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
15 Oct 32.0 °C 48 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
16 Oct 33.2 °C 51 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm High 21
17 Oct 34.3 °C 46 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
18 Oct after 32.7 °C 50 % 49 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Oct 2018
After · 24 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 · 153Every 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 Muanza fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 October 2018 and 17 October 2018: 7 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 4,612 hectares (46.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Muanza (4,632 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.5 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.