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Murrupula fire, October 2016 Murrupula, Gilé

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2016, 11:44 UTC

The fire started on 8 October 2016 in Murrupula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,095 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 87th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 43 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
7,095ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
8 Oct 2016 – 14 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Oct
2016
Heat detections
279
in a single hotspot: 113 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Oct14 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

89101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
40km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days 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. Murrupula where it started
    6,942 ha reached on 1 Oct
    2.2 %
  2. Gilé
    197 ha reached on 1 Oct
    0.0 %

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)
8 Oct 32.6 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Oct 32.9 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Oct 34.6 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Oct 34.9 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Oct 34.4 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Oct 34.0 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Oct 31.5 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Oct after 30.8 °C 44 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
16 Oct after 33.4 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Oct after 34.7 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Oct after 34.3 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Oct after 31.4 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
20 Oct after 32.5 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Oct after 32.7 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Oct after 35.1 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Oct after 35.1 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Oct after 35.0 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Oct 2016
After · 21 Oct 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 · 279Every 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 Murrupula fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 October 2016 and 14 October 2016: 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 7,095 hectares (71.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Murrupula (6,942 ha, 2.2 %); Gilé (197 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 40 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.