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Tsangano fire, 23 September 2017 Tsangano

Out · last detection 28 Sept 2017, 11:19 UTC

The fire started on 23 September 2017 in Tsangano, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,458 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 88th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 115 with a page). Number 142 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
3,458ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
23 Sept 2017 – 28 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
23 Sept
2017
Heat detections
119
in a single hotspot: 143 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Sept28 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
49km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 833 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Tsangano where it started
    3,483 ha reached on 16 Sept
    1.0 %

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)
23 Sept 32.3 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Sept 27.2 °C 36 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Sept 30.2 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
26 Sept 35.5 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Sept 35.1 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Sept 30.7 °C 38 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
29 Sept after 27.1 °C 52 % 46 km/h 0.5 mm High 29
30 Sept after 29.3 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
1 Oct after 28.2 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
2 Oct after 30.5 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
3 Oct after 31.0 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Oct after 33.1 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Oct after 33.6 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Oct after 32.5 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Oct after 33.3 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Oct after 34.5 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Sept 2017
After · 5 Oct 2017

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 · 119Every 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 Tsangano fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 September 2017 and 28 September 2017: 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 3,458 hectares (34.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tsangano (3,483 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.