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Muanza fire, 7 October 2019 Muanza, Dondo

Out · last detection 14 Nov 2019, 11:48 UTC

The fire started on 7 October 2019 in Muanza, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 39 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 58,511 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Sofala since 2016 (of 214 with a page). Number 2 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Muanza · 2017Muanza · 2016Dondo · 2021Muanza · 2025

Burnt area
58,511ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
39days
7 Oct 2019 – 14 Nov 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
7 Oct
2019
Heat detections
4,600
in a single hotspot: 400 MW
Danger at start
15
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
1.8GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Oct14 Nov
14 Nov 2019

How it evolved, day by day

7 Oct 2019 · 200 MW · 21 8 Oct 2019 · 106 MW · 18 9 Oct 2019 · 371 MW · 50 10 Oct 2019 · 233 MW · 32 13 Oct 2019 · 61 MW · 9 14 Oct 2019 · 247 MW · 23 15 Oct 2019 · 14 MW · 4 16 Oct 2019 · 1,171 MW · 84 17 Oct 2019 · 816 MW · 55 18 Oct 2019 · 239 MW · 30 19 Oct 2019 · 1,184 MW · 105 20 Oct 2019 · 1,492 MW · 118 21 Oct 2019 · 1,442 MW · 133 22 Oct 2019 · 56 MW · 13 23 Oct 2019 · 1,429 MW · 142 24 Oct 2019 · 3,054 MW · 274 25 Oct 2019 · 12,758 MW · 668 26 Oct 2019 · 5,418 MW · 358 27 Oct 2019 · 1,657 MW · 175 28 Oct 2019 · 19,302 MW · 930 29 Oct 2019 · 2,305 MW · 206 30 Oct 2019 · 218 MW · 26 31 Oct 2019 · 791 MW · 52 1 Nov 2019 · 75 MW · 10 2 Nov 2019 · 649 MW · 85 3 Nov 2019 · 2,954 MW · 156 4 Nov 2019 · 1,971 MW · 134 5 Nov 2019 · 1,605 MW · 116 6 Nov 2019 · 822 MW · 81 7 Nov 2019 · 1,764 MW · 186 8 Nov 2019 · 894 MW · 92 9 Nov 2019 · 79 MW · 8 10 Nov 2019 · 433 MW · 44 11 Nov 2019 · 652 MW · 27 12 Nov 2019 · 542 MW · 46 13 Nov 2019 · 728 MW · 55 14 Nov 2019 · 399 MW · 34
7 Oct 15 Oct 21 Oct 27 Oct 28 Oct 2 Nov 8 Nov 14 Nov

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

The weather it burned in

43°high
51km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.4 mm on 15 Nov.

This area had burned before

19% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,953 ha in 2016, 1,854 ha in 2017, 3,008 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,271 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 37% of the area of London (585 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Muanza where it started
    47,268 ha reached on 7 Oct
    6.3 %
  2. Dondo
    11,632 ha reached on 8 Oct
    5.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area11 ha
Residents≈ 3,700

Inside the perimeter there were about 11 hectares of built-up land and about 3,700 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
7 Oct 30.7 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 15
8 Oct 34.9 °C 48 % 39 km/h 2.2 mm Low 10
9 Oct 36.6 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
10 Oct 37.0 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
11 Oct 28.1 °C 66 % 49 km/h 2.9 mm Very low 4
12 Oct 25.1 °C 75 % 32 km/h 4.9 mm Very low 0
13 Oct 28.9 °C 56 % 28 km/h 1.1 mm Very low 3
14 Oct 27.0 °C 59 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Low 6
15 Oct 29.1 °C 46 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 12
16 Oct 29.0 °C 47 % 51 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 14
17 Oct 28.5 °C 53 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 12
18 Oct 27.3 °C 61 % 31 km/h 8.4 mm Very low 1
19 Oct 29.3 °C 65 % 34 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 1
20 Oct 31.1 °C 66 % 36 km/h 1.2 mm Very low 2
21 Oct 35.9 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Low 11
22 Oct 34.4 °C 54 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
23 Oct 35.7 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 17
24 Oct 40.2 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
25 Oct 41.0 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Oct 40.2 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Oct 40.1 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Oct 42.8 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Oct 41.9 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Oct 31.5 °C 57 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
31 Oct 33.0 °C 49 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 21
1 Nov 30.8 °C 49 % 47 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
2 Nov 31.2 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
3 Nov 34.7 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Nov 34.0 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Nov 30.9 °C 44 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Nov 32.8 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Nov 36.4 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Nov 39.5 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
9 Nov 32.5 °C 61 % 45 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 13
10 Nov 32.2 °C 52 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
11 Nov 34.5 °C 41 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
12 Nov 33.3 °C 46 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Nov 34.2 °C 41 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Nov 36.1 °C 43 % 32 km/h 1.0 mm High 24
15 Nov after 34.4 °C 51 % 37 km/h 3.4 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Sept 2019
After · 21 Nov 2019

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 · 4,600Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 October 2019 to 14 November 2019 (39 days). The perimeter dates it from 13 October 2019 to 11 November 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 58,511 hectares (585.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Muanza (47,268 ha, 6.3 %); Dondo (11,632 ha, 5.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 42.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 11 November 2019 → 14 November 2019.
  2. Start date: 13 October 2019 → 7 October 2019.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 13 October 2019 to 11 November 2019. 4,600 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.