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Rapale fire, 19 September 2022 Rapale, Murrupula

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2022, 10:16 UTC

The fire started on 19 September 2022 in Rapale, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,374 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 302th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 162 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.

Burnt area
3,374ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
19 Sept 2022 – 24 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
19 Sept
2022
Heat detections
100
in a single hotspot: 37 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
203MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

24 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

19 Sept 2022 · 250 MW · 14 20 Sept 2022 · 404 MW · 39 21 Sept 2022 · 41 MW · 5 22 Sept 2022 · 475 MW · 31 23 Sept 2022 · 18 MW · 4 24 Sept 2022 · 31 MW · 6
19 Sept 20 Sept 21 Sept 22 Sept 23 Sept 24 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
45km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,341 ha in 2016, 2,764 ha in 2017, 2,117 ha in 2018, 2,013 ha in 2019, 1,299 ha in 2020, 1,927 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,360 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rapale where it started
    3,216 ha reached on 19 Sept
    0.9 %
  2. Murrupula
    179 ha reached on 21 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
19 Sept 31.3 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Sept 32.0 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Sept 31.0 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept 30.7 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Sept 28.6 °C 48 % 45 km/h 1.3 mm Moderate 19
24 Sept 30.3 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
25 Sept after 29.6 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Sept after 30.9 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Sept after 31.4 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Sept after 29.6 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Sept after 29.9 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Sept after 31.0 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Oct after 32.2 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Oct after 32.2 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Oct after 32.5 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Oct after 33.4 °C 21 % 38 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.

Before · 12 Sept 2022
After · 1 Oct 2022

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 · 100Every 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 Rapale fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 September 2022 and 24 September 2022: 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 3,374 hectares (33.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rapale (3,216 ha, 0.9 %); Murrupula (179 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 45 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.

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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.