Murrupula fire, 7 September 2024 Murrupula, Gilé
The fire started on 7 September 2024 in Murrupula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,339 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 30th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 10 in Mozambique in 2024, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 13,339ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 7 Sept 2024 – 20 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 492
- in a single hotspot: 245 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 22 Sept.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,016 ha in 2016, 4,786 ha in 2017, 7,230 ha in 2018, 5,258 ha in 2019, 3,330 ha in 2020, 6,378 ha in 2021, 6,331 ha in 2022, 2,559 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,061 ha that had burned before.
- 6,690 ha Murrupula fire, September 2018 11,300 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,457 ha Murrupula fire, October 2016 7,095 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,136 ha Murrupula fire, September 2022 7,656 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,863 ha Murrupula fire, September 2019 6,626 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,400 ha Murrupula fire, September 2021 4,234 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,330 ha Murrupula fire, September 2020 3,688 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,060 ha Murrupula fire, October 2017 3,795 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Murrupula where it started13,315 ha reached on 6 Sept4.3 %
-
107 ha reached on 12 Sept0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Sept | 29.5 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 7 Sept | 30.5 °C | 43 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 8 Sept | 32.1 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Sept | 33.8 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Sept | 31.6 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Sept | 31.2 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 12 Sept | 31.0 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Sept | 33.2 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Sept | 34.4 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 15 Sept | 34.0 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Sept | 32.6 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 17 Sept | 32.5 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Sept | 33.3 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Sept | 33.3 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Sept | 34.2 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 Sept after | 33.9 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 56 % | 37 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 18 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 78 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 492Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Murrupula fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2024 and 20 September 2024: 14 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 13,339 hectares (133.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Murrupula (13,315 ha, 4.3 %); Gilé (107 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.
Report an error
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.