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Rapale fire, October 2022 Rapale, Meconta

Out · last detection 10 Oct 2022, 10:16 UTC

The fire started on 2 October 2022 in Rapale, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,142 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 357th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 393 with a page). Number 189 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.

Burnt area
3,142ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
2 Oct 2022 – 10 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
2 Oct
2022
Heat detections
93
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
691MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Oct 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Oct10 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2345678910

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
41km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,012 ha in 2016, 824 ha in 2017, 872 ha in 2018, 86 ha in 2019, 983 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,957 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rapale where it started
    3,162 ha reached on 26 Sept
    0.9 %
  2. Meconta
    1 ha
    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)
2 Oct 32.4 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Oct 33.4 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Oct 34.3 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Oct 33.1 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Oct 34.3 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Oct 33.8 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Oct 32.9 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Oct 32.9 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Oct 32.3 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Oct after 32.6 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Oct after 32.1 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Oct after 33.5 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Oct after 33.8 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Oct after 33.0 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Oct after 32.6 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Oct after 32.7 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Oct after 31.4 °C 43 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
19 Oct after 31.8 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
20 Oct after 33.8 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Sept 2022
After · 17 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 · 93Every 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 2 October 2022 and 10 October 2022: 9 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 3,142 hectares (31.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rapale (3,162 ha, 0.9 %); Meconta (1 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 41 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

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.