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Namuno fire, 21 August 2021 Namuno, Balama

Out · last detection 30 Aug 2021, 10:29 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2021 in Namuno, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,135 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 29th largest in Cabo Delgado since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 76 in Mozambique in 2021, of 233.

Burnt area
5,135ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
21 Aug 2021 – 29 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
21 Aug
2021
Heat detections
155
in a single hotspot: 129 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug29 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

21222324252627282930

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
38km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 640 ha in 2016, 936 ha in 2017, 577 ha in 2018, 931 ha in 2019, 244 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,117 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Namuno where it started
    3,905 ha reached on 21 Aug
    0.6 %
  2. Balama
    1,269 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
21 Aug 31.4 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Aug 31.6 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Aug 31.5 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Aug 31.2 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Aug 31.2 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Aug 31.6 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Aug 31.4 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Aug 32.4 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug 32.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug after 30.1 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Aug after 30.1 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Sept after 29.8 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
2 Sept after 29.7 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Sept after 30.2 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Sept after 31.6 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Sept after 31.4 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept after 30.0 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Sept after 31.4 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Sept after 32.0 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Aug 2021
After · 5 Sept 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 · 155Every 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 Namuno fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 August 2021 and 29 August 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 5,135 hectares (51.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Namuno (3,905 ha, 0.6 %); Balama (1,269 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.