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Balama fire, 30 July 2026 Balama, Namuno

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2026, 23:09 UTC

The fire started on 30 July 2026 in Balama, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 47 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 46,372 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the largest fire in Cabo Delgado since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 21 in Mozambique in 2026, of 525.

Burnt area
46,372ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
47days
30 Jul 2026 – 14 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
30 Jul
2026
Heat detections
1,622
in a single hotspot: 122 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
18.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Jul14 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

30311456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
52km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13,316 ha in 2016, 6,826 ha in 2017, 7,430 ha in 2018, 11,038 ha in 2019, 924 ha in 2020, 5,453 ha in 2021, 4,270 ha in 2022, 8,726 ha in 2023, 12,709 ha in 2024, 12,598 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 36,526 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Balama where it started
    46,643 ha reached on 30 Jul
    8.4 %
  2. Namuno
    3 ha reached on 7 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
3 Aug 24.8 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
4 Aug 24.8 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
5 Aug 25.6 °C 41 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
6 Aug 27.1 °C 42 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Aug 28.6 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Aug 28.0 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
9 Aug 27.9 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Aug 28.4 °C 39 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
11 Aug 29.2 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
12 Aug 29.6 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Aug 25.9 °C 45 % 46 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
14 Aug 24.7 °C 48 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
15 Aug 24.0 °C 43 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Aug 25.9 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Aug 26.4 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Aug 26.5 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
19 Aug 27.2 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Aug 27.3 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
21 Aug 29.6 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.8 mm High 22
22 Aug 31.0 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Aug 31.1 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Aug 28.9 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Aug 29.4 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Aug 28.2 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Aug 28.5 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Aug 29.4 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Aug 27.4 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
30 Aug 29.3 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Aug 29.3 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Sept 29.9 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Sept 29.4 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Sept 28.6 °C 34 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Sept 30.2 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Sept 28.7 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Sept 30.5 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Sept 30.0 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Sept 27.4 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Sept 27.8 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Sept 28.7 °C 42 % 41 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
11 Sept 30.5 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Sept 30.9 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Sept 30.6 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept 29.8 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Sept after 31.0 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Sept after 27.9 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
17 Sept after 29.3 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.2 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Jul 2026
After · 21 Sept 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 24 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 78 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak78 µg/m³
Days over the guideline20 days
PM1082 µg/m³
Optical depth1.08
28293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 1,622Every 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 Balama fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 July 2026 to 14 September 2026 (47 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 August 2026 to 7 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 46,372 hectares (463.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Balama (46,643 ha, 8.4 %); Namuno (3 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.