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Pebane fire, 22 October 2019 Pebane

Out · last detection 31 Oct 2019, 11:11 UTC

The fire started on 22 October 2019 in Pebane, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,009 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 520th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 111 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

Burnt area
4,009ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
22 Oct 2019 – 31 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Oct
2019
Heat detections
195
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
16
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Oct31 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

222425262728293031

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
53km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,762 ha in 2016, 3,758 ha in 2017, 1,887 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,602 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pebane where it started
    4,036 ha reached on 22 Oct
    0.4 %

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)
22 Oct 37.3 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
23 Oct 36.1 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
24 Oct 38.0 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
25 Oct 38.5 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 23
26 Oct 38.3 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
27 Oct 39.2 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Oct 40.3 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Oct 40.9 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Oct 38.9 °C 20 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Oct 33.2 °C 44 % 46 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 18
1 Nov after 30.0 °C 62 % 52 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 15
2 Nov after 29.2 °C 53 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
3 Nov after 32.7 °C 46 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
4 Nov after 33.0 °C 48 % 46 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 20
5 Nov after 31.5 °C 45 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Nov after 31.6 °C 50 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
7 Nov after 35.8 °C 36 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 27
8 Nov after 38.1 °C 24 % 47 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
9 Nov after 36.7 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Nov after 32.9 °C 47 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Oct 2019
After · 7 Nov 2019

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 · 195Every 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 22 October 2019 and 31 October 2019: 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 4,009 hectares (40.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pebane (4,036 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.