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Ribaué fire, 13 September 2018 Ribaué

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2018, 10:28 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2018 in Ribaué, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,164 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 50th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 32 in Mozambique in 2018, of 220.

Burnt area
9,164ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
13 Sept 2018 – 22 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
13 Sept
2018
Heat detections
405
in a single hotspot: 105 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1314151617181920212223

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
50km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

50% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,300 ha in 2016, 1,807 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,581 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ribaué where it started
    9,223 ha reached on 13 Sept
    1.5 %

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)
13 Sept 30.0 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
14 Sept 30.7 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Sept 31.6 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Sept 32.1 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Sept 31.5 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Sept 31.9 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Sept 31.0 °C 32 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Sept 32.1 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Sept 32.3 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Sept 30.1 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Sept after 31.0 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Sept after 31.0 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Sept after 32.5 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Sept after 33.0 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Sept after 31.3 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Sept after 31.8 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Sept after 31.4 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Sept after 28.6 °C 39 % 56 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 41
1 Oct after 27.9 °C 48 % 52 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
2 Oct after 29.9 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Oct after 31.8 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Oct after 32.1 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Oct after 27.6 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Oct after 28.4 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Oct after 29.5 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Oct after 28.3 °C 41 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Oct after 29.9 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2018
After · 29 Sept 2018

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 · 405Every 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 Ribaué fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2018 and 22 September 2018: 10 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 9,164 hectares (91.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ribaué (9,223 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 50 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.