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Pebane fire, November 2019 Pebane

Out · last detection 9 Nov 2019, 11:43 UTC

The fire started on 4 November 2019 in Pebane, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,104 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 507th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 105 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

Burnt area
4,104ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
4 Nov 2019 – 9 Nov 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
4 Nov
2019
Heat detections
131
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
892MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Nov 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Nov9 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

456789

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
48km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 15 Nov.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,726 ha in 2016, 1,093 ha in 2017, 1,223 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,291 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Pebane where it started
    4,131 ha reached on 4 Nov
    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)
4 Nov 33.1 °C 49 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 19
5 Nov 32.2 °C 45 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
6 Nov 32.0 °C 49 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
7 Nov 35.7 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
8 Nov 37.2 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Nov 36.7 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
10 Nov after 33.3 °C 47 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
11 Nov after 32.5 °C 52 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
12 Nov after 33.9 °C 44 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 23
13 Nov after 32.9 °C 50 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm High 22
14 Nov after 37.8 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Nov after 39.0 °C 34 % 42 km/h 1.2 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Oct 2019
After · 16 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 · 131Every 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 4 November 2019 and 9 November 2019: 6 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 4,104 hectares (41.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pebane (4,131 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class 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.