Pebane fire, November 2022 Pebane
The fire started on 1 November 2022 in Pebane, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,560 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 194th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 40 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.
- Burnt area
- 8,560ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 1 Nov 2022 – 14 Nov 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 1 Nov
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 262
- in a single hotspot: 108 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.2GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.1 mm on 15 Nov.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,103 ha in 2016, 6,955 ha in 2017, 5,419 ha in 2018, 4,077 ha in 2019, 6,065 ha in 2020, 4,907 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,547 ha that had burned before.
- 4,493 ha Pebane fire, September 2020 12,694 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,056 ha Pebane fire, September 2016 10,511 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,026 ha Pebane fire, September 2018 6,535 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,009 ha Pebane fire, October 2017 5,856 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,488 ha Pebane fire, September 2021 6,940 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,547 ha Pebane fire, October 2019 4,009 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,262 ha Pebane fire, October 2017 4,121 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Pebane fire, September 2018 3,023 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Pebane where it started8,620 ha reached on 1 Nov0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Nov | 34.6 °C | 36 % | 52 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Nov | 31.4 °C | 59 % | 44 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 3 Nov | 31.9 °C | 55 % | 39 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 4 Nov | 33.7 °C | 47 % | 40 km/h | 5.3 mm | Low 8 |
| 5 Nov | 36.4 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Nov | 36.7 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Nov | 37.5 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 8 Nov | 38.0 °C | 26 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Nov | 37.1 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 Nov | 37.7 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 38 |
| 11 Nov | 36.5 °C | 29 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 12 Nov | 34.8 °C | 41 % | 43 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 31 |
| 13 Nov | 36.1 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Nov | 36.5 °C | 38 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 15 Nov after | 30.4 °C | 60 % | 42 km/h | 3.1 mm | Low 6 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 262Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 25,019 haPebane 7 October 2026 · 17 days · 4 km away
- 19,106 haPebane22 September 2023 · 24 days · 9 km away
- 18,797 haPebane30 October 2021 · 21 days · 25 km away
- 14,294 haPebane21 October 2016 · 10 days · 32 km away
- 40,408 haMocubela11 September 2026 · 21 days · 40 km away
- 25,462 haPebane6 September 2024 · 16 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Pebane fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 November 2022 and 14 November 2022: 14 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 8,560 hectares (85.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pebane (8,620 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.
Report an error
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.