Rapale fire, September 2021 Rapale, Murrupula
The fire started on 14 September 2021 in Rapale, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,139 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 18th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 7 in Mozambique in 2021, of 233.
- Burnt area
- 17,139ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 14 Sept 2021 – 2 Oct 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Sept
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 752
- in a single hotspot: 82 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.6GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10,515 ha in 2016, 8,949 ha in 2017, 7,177 ha in 2018, 6,948 ha in 2019, 7,955 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 16,326 ha that had burned before.
- 8,406 ha Rapale fire, September 2017 31,412 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,438 ha Rapale fire, September 2016 29,696 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,007 ha Rapale fire, September 2018 16,040 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,693 ha Rapale fire, August 2020 6,956 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,631 ha Rapale fire, September 2019 3,160 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,397 ha Rapale fire, September 2019 3,489 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 600 ha Rapale fire, August 2020 4,699 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 170 ha Ribaué fire, September 2018 17,193 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Rapale where it started14,880 ha reached on 14 Sept4.0 %
-
2,356 ha reached on 26 Sept0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Sept | 30.7 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Sept | 32.4 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Sept | 32.8 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Sept | 33.1 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Sept | 27.6 °C | 51 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Sept | 23.9 °C | 49 % | 42 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 20 Sept | 26.9 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Sept | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Sept | 30.6 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Sept | 27.1 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 27 |
| 24 Sept | 29.2 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Sept | 28.9 °C | 40 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Sept | 29.9 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 27 Sept | 31.1 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Sept | 33.5 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Sept | 33.6 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Sept | 32.4 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Oct | 31.4 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 2 Oct | 32.7 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Oct after | 32.8 °C | 33 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Oct after | 33.9 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Oct after | 31.4 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Oct after | 31.1 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Oct after | 30.6 °C | 33 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 8 Oct after | 27.7 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
| 9 Oct after | 31.7 °C | 28 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 10 Oct after | 33.2 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 11 Oct after | 30.7 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Oct after | 26.5 °C | 48 % | 47 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Oct after | 29.9 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 14 Oct after | 30.8 °C | 39 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 15 Oct after | 34.4 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Oct after | 34.6 °C | 26 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Oct after | 33.6 °C | 29 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Oct after | 32.1 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 19 Oct after | 31.2 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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 · 752Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 31,412 haRapaleSeptember 2017 · 17 days · 4 km away
- 16,040 haRapaleSeptember 2018 · 13 days · 5 km away
- 26,995 haRibaué18 August 2026 · 24 days · 8 km away
- 26,065 haRapale2 September 2025 · 24 days · 8 km away
- 29,696 haRapaleSeptember 2016 · 23 days · 13 km away
- 17,193 haRibaué14 September 2018 · 10 days · 15 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Rapale fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 September 2021 and 2 October 2021: 19 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 17,139 hectares (171.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rapale (14,880 ha, 4.0 %); Murrupula (2,356 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.