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Pebane fire, 21 October 2016 Pebane

Out · last detection 31 Oct 2016, 11:43 UTC

The fire started on 21 October 2016 in Pebane, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,294 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 109th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 12 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
14,294ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
21 Oct 2016 – 30 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Oct
2016
Heat detections
741
in a single hotspot: 92 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
6.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Oct30 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2122232425262728293031

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
54km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 6 Nov.

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
    14,393 ha reached on 17 Oct
    1.4 %

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)
17 Oct 37.2 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Oct 36.0 °C 31 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Oct 30.0 °C 60 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm High 23
20 Oct 30.2 °C 54 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
21 Oct 32.6 °C 46 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Oct 36.0 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
23 Oct 37.5 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Oct 37.5 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Oct 37.0 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Oct 35.2 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Oct 35.7 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.8 mm High 33
28 Oct 36.6 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Oct 35.3 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
30 Oct 37.7 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Oct after 39.3 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Nov after 37.3 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 47
2 Nov after 34.2 °C 40 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
3 Nov after 30.9 °C 58 % 40 km/h 1.5 mm Moderate 14
4 Nov after 32.0 °C 54 % 37 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 20
5 Nov after 35.4 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Nov after 35.8 °C 34 % 52 km/h 1.6 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Oct 2016
After · 6 Nov 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 · 741Every 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 21 October 2016 and 30 October 2016: 10 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 14,294 hectares (142.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pebane (14,393 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.