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Murrupula fire, October 2021 Murrupula, Ribaué

Out · last detection 11 Oct 2021, 10:41 UTC

The fire started on 3 October 2021 in Murrupula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,414 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 79th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 35 in Mozambique in 2021, of 233.

Burnt area
7,414ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
3 Oct 2021 – 11 Oct 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
3 Oct
2021
Heat detections
351
in a single hotspot: 67 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Oct 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Oct11 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

34567891011

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
47km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,336 ha in 2016, 2,972 ha in 2017, 2,757 ha in 2018, 1,068 ha in 2019, 2,933 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,402 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Murrupula where it started
    6,693 ha reached on 28 Sept
    2.2 %
  2. Ribaué
    755 ha reached on 28 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
3 Oct 31.6 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Oct 32.5 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Oct 30.8 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Oct 30.6 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Oct 29.8 °C 33 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Oct 27.2 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
9 Oct 30.5 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Oct 31.7 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Oct 30.1 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
12 Oct after 25.7 °C 51 % 50 km/h 0.6 mm High 29
13 Oct after 29.3 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Oct after 30.0 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Oct after 33.3 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Oct after 33.1 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Oct after 32.2 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Oct after 30.9 °C 37 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Oct after 30.7 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Oct after 28.4 °C 49 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 30
21 Oct after 26.2 °C 55 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Sept 2021
After · 18 Oct 2021

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 · 351Every 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 3 October 2021 and 11 October 2021: 9 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 7,414 hectares (74.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Murrupula (6,693 ha, 2.2 %); Ribaué (755 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 47 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.