Burned area
satellite only3,071ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 2 Oct 2021 – 15 Oct 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
MZ · Mozambique · –
Namarrói fire, 2 October 2021 Namarrói
Out · last detection 15 Oct 2021, 11:06 UTC
The fire started on 2 October 2021 in Namarrói, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,071 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 531th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 564 with a page). Number 222 in Mozambique in 2021, of 233.
Use this data
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Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only14days
2 Oct 2021 to 15 Oct 2021: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 15 Oct 2021, 11:06 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only2 Oct 2021
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 2 Oct 2021
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only89
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 68 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 2 Oct 2021 – 15 Oct 2021
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only375MW
Total radiative power on 8 October 2021; hotspots that day: 30.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 8 Oct 2021
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model29.2FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 9.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 2 Oct 2021, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model33.1°C · 23% RH
High of 33.1 °C and minimum humidity of 23% on 15 October 2021; gusts of 55 km/h on 10 October 2021.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 2 Oct 2021 – 15 Oct 2021
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 850people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 7.9 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 10 October 2021 → 15 October 2021.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 3,071 ha
- Dates
- 2 Oct 2021 – 15 Oct 2021
- Name
- Namarrói
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/namarroi-2021-10?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire namarroi-2021-10.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-10-02 | 1 | 1 | 31.3 | 17.1 | 29 | 11.9 | 30.6 | 0 | 29.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-10-03 | 2 | 13 | 32.8 | 19.3 | 29 | 12.9 | 32.4 | 0 | 30.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-10-04 | 10 | 22 | 30.7 | 20.4 | 36 | 16.2 | 36.4 | 0 | 31.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-10-05 | 3 | 23 | 30.1 | 19.4 | 31 | 17.4 | 37.4 | 0 | 33.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-10-06 | 5 | 48 | 29.9 | 17.7 | 32 | 16.7 | 35.6 | 0 | 33.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-10-07 | 7 | 59 | 27.3 | 17.2 | 35 | 17.3 | 41 | 0 | 32.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-10-08 | 30 | 375 | 26.2 | 16.1 | 32 | 13 | 31 | 0 | 29.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-10-09 | 17 | 178 | 30.6 | 13 | 20 | 9.8 | 21.6 | 0 | 31.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-10-10 | 7 | 70 | 32.6 | 15 | 21 | 26.5 | 55.4 | 0.3 | 49 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2021-10-11 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 16.9 | 53 | 19.1 | 44.3 | 5 | 5.8 | bajo | 1 |
| 2021-10-12 | 0 | 0 | 23.5 | 15 | 43 | 16.9 | 37.8 | 2.2 | 6.4 | bajo | 1 |
| 2021-10-13 | 0 | 0 | 27.5 | 13.2 | 34 | 9.7 | 23.4 | 0 | 14.4 | moderado | 1 |
| 2021-10-14 | 3 | 21 | 30.6 | 16.1 | 27 | 13 | 33.8 | 0 | 25.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-10-15 | 4 | 46 | 33.1 | 19.2 | 23 | 13.6 | 34.2 | 0 | 30.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2021-10-16 | 0 | 0 | 33.3 | 20.4 | 25 | 11.6 | 31.3 | 0 | 29.9 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-10-17 | 0 | 0 | 33.2 | 20.4 | 27 | 13.7 | 34.2 | 0 | 32.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-10-18 | 0 | 0 | 32.4 | 20.6 | 29 | 11.4 | 29.9 | 0 | 31 | alto | 0 |
| 2021-10-19 | 0 | 0 | 30.5 | 20.5 | 25 | 20.2 | 44.3 | 0 | 39 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2021-10-20 | 0 | 0 | 24.1 | 17.3 | 61 | 16.5 | 38.5 | 2.3 | 6.8 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 3,071ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 2 Oct 2021 – 15 Oct 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 2 Oct
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 89
- in a single hotspot: 68 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 78MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
2 Oct15 Oct
15 Oct 2021
How it evolved, day by day
2 Oct
5 Oct
8 Oct
14 Oct
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
33°high
55km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity
It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 20 Oct.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,827 ha in 2016, 971 ha in 2017, 1,823 ha in 2018, 1,194 ha in 2019, 2,652 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,883 ha that had burned before.
- 2,652 ha Namarrói fire, September 2020 7,962 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,827 ha Namarrói fire, September 2016 18,104 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,823 ha Namarrói fire, September 2018 52,630 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 952 ha Namarrói fire, October 2017 4,515 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 19 ha Namarrói fire, October 2017 45,014 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Namarrói where it started3,089 ha reached on 2 Oct1.0 %
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area7.9 ha
Residents≈ 850
Inside the perimeter there were about 7.9 hectares of built-up land and about 850 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Oct | 31.3 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 3 Oct | 32.8 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 4 Oct | 30.7 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Oct | 30.1 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Oct | 29.9 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 Oct | 27.3 °C | 35 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Oct | 26.2 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 9 Oct | 30.6 °C | 20 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Oct | 32.6 °C | 21 % | 55 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 49 |
| 11 Oct | 24.0 °C | 53 % | 44 km/h | 5.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 12 Oct | 23.5 °C | 43 % | 38 km/h | 2.2 mm | Low 6 |
| 13 Oct | 27.5 °C | 34 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 14 Oct | 30.6 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Oct | 33.1 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Oct after | 33.3 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Oct after | 33.2 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Oct after | 32.4 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Oct after | 30.5 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Oct after | 24.1 °C | 61 % | 38 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 7 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 29.2, a minimum humidity of 29% and 9 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 17.
FWI at the start
29.2
Minimum humidity
29 %
Days without rain
9
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Namarrói fire, 2 October 2021
3,071 ha
14 days
FWI 29.2
Min. humidity 29 %
Lugela fire, September 2016
6,394 ha
23 days
FWI 29.2
Min. humidity 28 %
69 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 8.2 mm on 3 Oct.
Mocuba fire, September 2016
3,024 ha
16 days
FWI 29.4
Min. humidity 30 %
97 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.7 mm on 20 Sept.
Molumbo fire, September 2022
4,300 ha
27 days
FWI 29.6
Min. humidity 28 %
73 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mocubela fire, September 2024
3,977 ha
8 days
FWI 29.0
Min. humidity 28 %
144 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 22 Sept.
Molumbo fire, October 2022
3,774 ha
20 days
FWI 29.3
Min. humidity 29 %
78 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.5 mm on 29 Oct.
What happened to them
- 14 days
- median duration
- 3,977 ha
- median area
- 12 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 4.0 mm
- rain at the end (median; 12 of 17 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (3,071 ha against a median of 3,977 ha) and lasted 14 days, against 14 days.
In 5 of 17, 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 4.0 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
2.3 mmfirst rain
20 Oct5 days after it ended
55km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 15 Oct, and on 20 Oct 2.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 12 of 17, with a median of 4.0 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 25 Sept 2021
After · 22 Oct 2021
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 89Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 52,630 haNamarrói6 September 2018 · 31 days · 6 km away
- 45,014 haNamarrói3 October 2017 · 25 days · 19 km away
- 57,742 haLugela5 October 2026 · 28 days · 23 km away
- 213,498 haNamarrói16 August 2026 · 44 days · 25 km away
- 49,801 haNamarrói4 September 2025 · 26 days · 32 km away
- 110,845 haLugela6 September 2020 · 39 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Namarrói fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 October 2021 to 15 October 2021 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 2 October 2021 to 10 October 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,071 hectares (30.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Namarrói (3,089 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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: 17. Their median duration was 14 days and their median area 3,977 ha; 12 % went past 10,000 ha. In 5 of 17, 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 4.0 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 10 October 2021 → 15 October 2021.
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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 2 October 2021 to 10 October 2021. 89 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.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.