Rapale fire, 26 August 2020 Rapale, Murrupula
The fire started on 26 August 2020 in Rapale, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,699 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 157th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 89 in Mozambique in 2020, of 193.
- Burnt area
- 4,699ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 26 Aug 2020 – 1 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 26 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 155
- in a single hotspot: 105 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 2 Sept.
This area had burned before
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,946 ha in 2016, 1,144 ha in 2017, 2,087 ha in 2018, 1,669 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,040 ha that had burned before.
- 1,984 ha Rapale fire, September 2018 16,040 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 853 ha Rapale fire, September 2017 31,412 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 187 ha Rapale fire, September 2019 3,803 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 161 ha Rapale fire, September 2016 29,696 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7 ha Rapale fire, September 2019 3,489 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Rapale where it started4,139 ha reached on 25 Aug1.1 %
-
588 ha reached on 27 Aug0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Aug | 32.2 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Aug | 31.6 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Aug | 31.5 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Aug | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Aug | 31.2 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 31 Aug | 31.9 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 1 Sept | 28.6 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 33 |
| 2 Sept after | 27.3 °C | 45 % | 42 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 18 |
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 · 155Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 26,065 haRapale2 September 2025 · 24 days · 9 km away
- 29,696 haRapaleSeptember 2016 · 23 days · 10 km away
- 31,412 haRapaleSeptember 2017 · 17 days · 14 km away
- 26,995 haRibaué18 August 2026 · 24 days · 22 km away
- 51,629 haMogovolas4 September 2026 · 19 days · 29 km away
- 24,027 haMogovolas15 September 2024 · 8 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Rapale fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 August 2020 and 1 September 2020: 7 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 4,699 hectares (47.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rapale (4,139 ha, 1.1 %); Murrupula (588 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.
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.