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Pebane fire, 14 September 2016 Pebane

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2016, 10:59 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2016 in Pebane, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,678 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 306th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 68 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
5,678ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
14 Sept 2016 – 25 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Sept
2016
Heat detections
293
in a single hotspot: 63 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept25 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819212223242526

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
46km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 3 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Pebane where it started
    5,710 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.6 %

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)
14 Sept 29.0 °C 55 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Sept 30.5 °C 48 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Sept 32.8 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Sept 33.9 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Sept 32.2 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Sept 29.8 °C 51 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
20 Sept 28.8 °C 54 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 26
21 Sept 29.8 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Sept 33.1 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Sept 34.1 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Sept 33.5 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Sept 32.3 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Sept after 29.9 °C 51 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Sept after 30.9 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
28 Sept after 34.2 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Sept after 34.2 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
30 Sept after 31.6 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Oct after 33.6 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Oct after 34.8 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Oct after 32.6 °C 43 % 38 km/h 3.2 mm Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2016
After · 2 Oct 2016

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 · 293Every 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 Pebane fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 September 2016 and 25 September 2016: 12 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 5,678 hectares (56.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pebane (5,710 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 46 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.

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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.