How long did the Rapale fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 September 2017 and 20 September 2017: 17 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 31,412 hectares (314.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Rapale (18,420 ha, 5.0 %); Murrupula (13,084 ha, 4.2 %); Ribaué (73 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.

MZ · Mozambique · 2017-09-04 → 2017-09-20

Rapale fire, September 2017 Rapale, Murrupula, Ribaué

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2017, 11:50 UTC

The fire started on 4 September 2017 in Rapale, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 31,412 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 393 with a page). Number 5 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area: 31,412ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 17days; 4 Sept 2017 – 20 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit: 3; districts
Started on: 4 Sept; 2017
Heat detections: 1,617; in a single hotspot: 227 MW
Danger at start: 35; High · FWI index
Energy released: 17.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 21 Sept 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Sept20 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

456789101112131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

33°high

49km/h · peak gust

18%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 28 Sept.

This area had burned before

59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19,041 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

Rapale where it started

18,420 ha reached on 28 Aug

5.0 %
Murrupula

13,084 ha reached on 30 Aug

4.2 %
Ribaué

73 ha reached on 28 Aug

0.0 %

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)
28 Aug	26.6 °C	37 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
29 Aug	25.8 °C	38 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
30 Aug	25.7 °C	41 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
31 Aug	26.8 °C	39 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
1 Sept	29.9 °C	32 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
2 Sept	29.3 °C	33 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
3 Sept	25.8 °C	47 %	44 km/h	0.7 mm	High 23
4 Sept	25.4 °C	42 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
5 Sept	26.8 °C	41 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
6 Sept	28.7 °C	40 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
7 Sept	29.8 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
8 Sept	31.0 °C	24 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
9 Sept	30.3 °C	29 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
10 Sept	29.4 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
11 Sept	30.4 °C	32 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
12 Sept	30.1 °C	36 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
13 Sept	31.2 °C	29 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
14 Sept	31.9 °C	23 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
15 Sept	31.2 °C	18 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
16 Sept	30.9 °C	27 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
17 Sept	32.8 °C	21 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
18 Sept	31.7 °C	35 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
19 Sept	31.8 °C	36 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
20 Sept	32.1 °C	32 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
21 Sept after	29.2 °C	45 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
22 Sept after	30.6 °C	37 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
23 Sept after	32.4 °C	25 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 Sept after	28.5 °C	39 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
25 Sept after	29.8 °C	38 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
26 Sept after	32.9 °C	31 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
27 Sept after	33.3 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
28 Sept after	30.9 °C	41 %	41 km/h	1.8 mm	Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 28 Aug 2017

After · 27 Sept 2017

Before After

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 · 1,617Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Rapale fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 September 2017 and 20 September 2017: 17 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 31,412 hectares (314.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Rapale (18,420 ha, 5.0 %); Murrupula (13,084 ha, 4.2 %); Ribaué (73 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned