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MZ · Mozambique · –

Namarrói fire, 6 September 2017 Gurué, Namarrói

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2017, 22:46 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2017 in Namarrói, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,261 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 42th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 562 with a page). Number 7 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
20,261ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
6 Sept 2017 – 27 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
6 Sept
2017
Heat detections
945
in a single hotspot: 144 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
564MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept27 Sept
27 Sept 2017

How it evolved, day by day

6 Sept 2017 · 13 MW · 3 7 Sept 2017 · 12 MW · 1 8 Sept 2017 · 315 MW · 13 10 Sept 2017 · 77 MW · 6 11 Sept 2017 · 71 MW · 9 12 Sept 2017 · 522 MW · 45 13 Sept 2017 · 363 MW · 26 14 Sept 2017 · 708 MW · 46 15 Sept 2017 · 2,870 MW · 187 16 Sept 2017 · 427 MW · 78 17 Sept 2017 · 3,873 MW · 273 18 Sept 2017 · 959 MW · 88 19 Sept 2017 · 11 MW · 2 20 Sept 2017 · 135 MW · 16 21 Sept 2017 · 17 MW · 4 22 Sept 2017 · 275 MW · 38 23 Sept 2017 · 101 MW · 16 24 Sept 2017 · 783 MW · 39 25 Sept 2017 · 124 MW · 11 26 Sept 2017 · 124 MW · 27 27 Sept 2017 · 61 MW · 17
6 Sept 12 Sept 17 Sept 22 Sept 27 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
40km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10,184 ha in 2016.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 13% of the area of London (203 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. 13,654 ha
    2.4 %
  2. Namarrói where it started
    6,714 ha
    2.2 %

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.

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 27.4 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Sept 29.6 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Sept 31.0 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Sept 30.3 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Sept 29.7 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Sept 30.0 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Sept 30.4 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Sept 31.5 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Sept 32.0 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Sept 30.6 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept 30.8 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept 33.6 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept 31.8 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept 30.8 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Sept 32.3 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Sept 28.9 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Sept 30.2 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Sept 32.0 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Sept 27.4 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Sept 30.6 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Sept 33.9 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Sept 34.3 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Sept after 32.8 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 60
29 Sept after 27.7 °C 52 % 49 km/h 0.3 mm High 37
30 Sept after 28.6 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Oct after 28.6 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
2 Oct after 29.4 °C 47 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
3 Oct after 31.7 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Oct after 31.5 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
5 Oct after 34.3 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Oct after 34.2 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Oct after 34.1 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 25.9, a minimum humidity of 41% and 15 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 40.

FWI at the start 25.9
Minimum humidity 41 %
Days without rain 15
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Lugela fire, September 2020
110,845 ha 39 days FWI 25.0 Min. humidity 41 % 29 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

16 days
median duration
4,063 ha
median area
20 %
went past 10,000 ha
3.3 mm
rain at the end (median; 31 of 40 had it)

It was 5.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 22 days, against 16 days.

Only 6 of its 40 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 9 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.3 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
40km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 27 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 31 of 40, with a median of 3.3 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2017
After · 4 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 · 945Every 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 Namarrói fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 September 2017 to 27 September 2017 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 September 2017 to 20 September 2017.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 20,261 hectares (202.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gurué (13,654 ha, 2.4 %); Namarrói (6,714 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 40. Their median duration was 16 days and their median area 4,063 ha; 20 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 6 of its 40 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 9 of 40, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.3 mm.

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 · 3 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Name: Gurué → Namarrói.
  2. Last day with fire: 20 September 2017 → 27 September 2017.
  3. Start date: 12 September 2017 → 6 September 2017.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 12 September 2017 to 20 September 2017. 945 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.

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.