Búzi fire, October 2026 Búzi, Nhamatanda
The fire started on 8 October 2026 in Búzi, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,332 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 20th largest in Sofala since 2016 (of 214 with a page). Number 67 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.
Is it still active?
No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:49 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
- Burnt area
- 12,332ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 8 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 194
- in a single hotspot: 84 MW
- Danger at start
- 3
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.9GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
33% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,918 ha in 2016, 1,114 ha in 2018, 1,656 ha in 2020, 1,089 ha in 2021, 903 ha in 2024, 2,741 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,049 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Búzi where it started12,221 ha reached on 13 Oct1.7 %
-
147 ha reached on 15 Oct0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Oct | 31.9 °C | 53 % | 31 km/h | 1.5 mm | Very low 3 |
| 9 Oct | 32.3 °C | 46 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 7 |
| 10 Oct | 31.9 °C | 48 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 11 Oct | 29.9 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 0.9 mm | Low 8 |
| 12 Oct | 30.3 °C | 47 % | 27 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 9 |
| 13 Oct | 33.1 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 14 Oct | 33.2 °C | 42 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 15 Oct | 34.2 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 16 Oct | 34.2 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 17 Oct | 34.4 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Oct | 35.6 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
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 15 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 17 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 194Every 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 Búzi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 October 2026 and 23 October 2026: 16 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 12,332 hectares (123.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Búzi (12,221 ha, 1.7 %); Nhamatanda (147 ha, 0.0 %).
- Is the Búzi fire still active?
- No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:49 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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.