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Muembe fire, 9 October 2017 Muembe

Out · last detection 20 Oct 2017, 11:07 UTC

The fire started on 9 October 2017 in Muembe, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,059 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 549th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 577 with a page). Number 181 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
3,059ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
9 Oct 2017 – 20 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Oct
2017
Heat detections
111
in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
564MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Oct20 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
44km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.0 mm on 29 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Muembe where it started
    3,076 ha reached on 9 Oct
    0.5 %

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)
9 Oct 27.1 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Oct 29.0 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Oct 30.1 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Oct 30.2 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.4 mm High 27
13 Oct 25.2 °C 59 % 40 km/h 3.1 mm Low 7
14 Oct 25.3 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
15 Oct 28.0 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
16 Oct 29.5 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Oct 30.5 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Oct 31.5 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Oct 29.1 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Oct 30.2 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
21 Oct after 29.1 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Oct after 28.9 °C 31 % 51 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 38
23 Oct after 26.8 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Oct after 28.5 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Oct after 28.7 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Oct after 29.9 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Oct after 29.5 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Oct after 28.3 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
29 Oct after 22.9 °C 56 % 49 km/h 4.0 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Oct 2017
After · 27 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 · 111Every 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 Muembe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2017 and 20 October 2017: 12 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 3,059 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Muembe (3,076 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.