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Nicoadala fire, 15 September 2023 Nicoadala, Mocuba

Out · last detection 1 Oct 2023, 10:40 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2023 in Nicoadala, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,548 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 87th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 5 in Mozambique in 2023, of 128.

Burnt area
17,548ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
15 Sept 2023 – 1 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Sept
2023
Heat detections
1,156
in a single hotspot: 114 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
8.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Oct 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept1 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223242526272829301

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

The weather it burned in

41°high
48km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 16 Oct.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,260 ha in 2016, 4,296 ha in 2017, 5,368 ha in 2018, 833 ha in 2019, 2,989 ha in 2020, 8,421 ha in 2021, 2,993 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,951 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Nicoadala where it started
    16,810 ha reached on 8 Sept
    6.0 %
  2. Mocuba
    821 ha reached on 8 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)
8 Sept 31.1 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Sept 31.1 °C 37 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Sept 35.1 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Sept 36.6 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Sept 37.5 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept 29.5 °C 54 % 42 km/h 3.6 mm Low 8
14 Sept 27.8 °C 55 % 31 km/h 4.1 mm Very low 4
15 Sept 33.3 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
16 Sept 38.2 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Sept 39.6 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Sept 33.7 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Sept 31.5 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Sept 35.2 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Sept 35.7 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Sept 34.7 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Sept 35.7 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Sept 36.7 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Sept 36.0 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Sept 38.4 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Sept 37.2 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Sept 36.9 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Sept 35.6 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Sept 37.7 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Oct 40.6 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Oct after 29.7 °C 59 % 48 km/h 4.5 mm Low 8
3 Oct after 28.6 °C 44 % 37 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 13
4 Oct after 31.2 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
5 Oct after 34.7 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
6 Oct after 37.6 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Oct after 39.1 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Oct after 40.4 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Oct after 34.0 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Oct after 35.2 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Oct after 35.4 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Oct after 38.8 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Oct after 42.9 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Oct after 43.0 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Oct after 33.4 °C 51 % 36 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
16 Oct after 34.1 °C 56 % 30 km/h 2.4 mm Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2023
After · 8 Oct 2023

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 · 1,156Every 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 Nicoadala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2023 and 1 October 2023: 17 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 17,548 hectares (175.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nicoadala (16,810 ha, 6.0 %); Mocuba (821 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.