Ribaué fire, 24 August 2020 Ribaué, Gilé, Murrupula
The fire started on 24 August 2020 in Ribaué, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,481 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 16th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 12 in Mozambique in 2020, of 193.
- Burnt area
- 17,481ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 24 Aug 2020 – 1 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 666
- in a single hotspot: 113 MW
- Danger at start
- 20
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.5GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 3.6 mm on 2 Sept.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,095 ha in 2016, 8,904 ha in 2017, 6,831 ha in 2018, 6,392 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,890 ha that had burned before.
- 4,084 ha Ribaué fire, September 2016 63,932 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,799 ha Ribaué fire, September 2017 53,154 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,797 ha Gilé fire, September 2018 25,284 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,536 ha Ribaué fire, August 2019 4,149 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 715 ha Ribaué fire, September 2018 11,628 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Ribaué where it started13,155 ha reached on 24 Aug2.1 %
-
3,682 ha reached on 26 Aug0.4 %
-
759 ha reached on 25 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug | 27.9 °C | 40 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 25 Aug | 30.5 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 26 Aug | 31.6 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Aug | 30.7 °C | 34 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Aug | 31.2 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 29 Aug | 31.2 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 30 Aug | 30.3 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 31 Aug | 31.5 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 1 Sept | 27.7 °C | 43 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 2 Sept after | 25.0 °C | 56 % | 42 km/h | 3.6 mm | Low 7 |
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 · 666Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 63,932 haRibaué9 September 2016 · 22 days · 7 km away
- 53,154 haRibaué6 September 2017 · 17 days · 10 km away
- 90,638 haGilé27 September 2022 · 18 days · 18 km away
- 70,839 haGilé8 September 2024 · 14 days · 29 km away
- 43,808 haMurrupula9 September 2025 · 22 days · 29 km away
- 145,344 haRibaué16 August 2026 · 43 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ribaué fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2020 and 1 September 2020: 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 17,481 hectares (174.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Ribaué (13,155 ha, 2.1 %); Gilé (3,682 ha, 0.4 %); Murrupula (759 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.