Balama fire, July 2026 Balama
The fire started on 20 July 2026 in Balama, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,854 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 66th largest in Cabo Delgado since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 333 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.
- Burnt area
- 3,854ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 20 Jul 2026 – 27 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 20 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 46
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 444MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,966 ha in 2016, 1,617 ha in 2018, 2,755 ha in 2019, 202 ha in 2020, 460 ha in 2022, 1,945 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,712 ha that had burned before.
- 1,848 ha Balama fire, July 2016 5,455 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,419 ha Balama fire, August 2019 3,493 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,381 ha Balama fire, July 2023 3,045 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,336 ha Balama fire, August 2019 8,844 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Balama where it started3,872 ha reached on 20 Jul0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Jul | 26.8 °C | 43 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Jul | 27.4 °C | 41 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 22 Jul | 25.8 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Jul | 26.5 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Jul | 26.1 °C | 41 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 25 Jul | 25.8 °C | 42 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Jul | 24.5 °C | 43 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Jul | 21.6 °C | 53 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Jul after | 24.5 °C | 43 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 29 Jul after | 24.5 °C | 46 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Jul after | 26.2 °C | 41 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 31 Jul after | 26.2 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 1 Aug after | 24.2 °C | 48 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 2 Aug after | 24.6 °C | 44 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 3 Aug after | 25.4 °C | 41 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Aug after | 25.1 °C | 43 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Aug after | 25.9 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 6 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 42 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Aug after | 29.1 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Aug after | 28.5 °C | 40 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 38 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 10 Aug after | 28.5 °C | 42 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 11 Aug after | 29.3 °C | 34 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 2 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 47 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 46Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Balama fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 July 2026 and 27 July 2026: 8 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 3,854 hectares (38.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Balama (3,872 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.4 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.