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Tsangano fire, September 2023 Tsangano

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2023, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2023 in Tsangano, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,944 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 61th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 115 with a page). Number 78 in Mozambique in 2023, of 128.

Burnt area
3,944ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
15 Sept 2023 – 23 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Sept
2023
Heat detections
196
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212324

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
45km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 2 Oct.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,203 ha in 2016, 2,790 ha in 2017, 1,987 ha in 2018, 760 ha in 2019, 1,221 ha in 2020, 297 ha in 2021, 1,432 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,685 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tsangano where it started
    3,971 ha reached on 8 Sept
    1.1 %

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)
15 Sept 30.0 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
16 Sept 32.6 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Sept 35.1 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Sept 31.1 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Sept 30.8 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Sept 32.2 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Sept 33.0 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Sept 31.9 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Sept 31.7 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Sept after 32.7 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Sept after 32.1 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Sept after 34.1 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Sept after 33.5 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Sept after 32.2 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Sept after 31.7 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Sept after 33.7 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Oct after 36.2 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Oct after 28.7 °C 48 % 53 km/h 1.6 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2023
After · 30 Sept 2023

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 · 196Every 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 15 September 2023 and 23 September 2023: 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 3,944 hectares (39.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tsangano (3,971 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 45 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.