Changara fire, October 2025 Changara
The fire started on 23 October 2025 in Changara, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,347 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 34th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 114 with a page). Number 118 in Mozambique in 2025, of 313.
- Burnt area
- 5,347ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 23 Oct 2025 – 6 Nov 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 216
- in a single hotspot: 156 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.6GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 5.8 mm on 12 Nov.
This area had burned before
81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 250 ha in 2020, 837 ha in 2021, 1,060 ha in 2022, 2,552 ha in 2023, 3,091 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,347 ha that had burned before.
- 2,541 ha Changara fire, October 2023 5,907 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 516 ha Changara fire, October 2021 5,349 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 321 ha Changara fire, October 2021 5,016 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 250 ha Changara fire, October 2020 7,226 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Changara where it started5,375 ha reached on 16 Oct0.9 %
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 Oct | 35.3 °C | 19 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Oct | 36.4 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 25 Oct | 38.2 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Oct | 41.7 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 27 Oct | 42.2 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 28 Oct | 39.1 °C | 23 % | 55 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 29 Oct | 37.0 °C | 24 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 30 Oct | 37.9 °C | 21 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 31 Oct | 36.7 °C | 24 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 1 Nov | 39.1 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 2 Nov | 41.9 °C | 14 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 3 Nov | 35.0 °C | 38 % | 64 km/h | 0.3 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 4 Nov | 33.2 °C | 35 % | 44 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Nov | 37.7 °C | 26 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 6 Nov | 35.0 °C | 29 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 7 Nov after | 30.9 °C | 33 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Nov after | 33.8 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 9 Nov after | 32.6 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Nov after | 35.0 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Nov after | 28.4 °C | 47 % | 33 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Nov after | 31.1 °C | 43 % | 29 km/h | 5.8 mm | Low 7 |
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 28 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 26 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 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 · 216Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,125 haChangara 6 October 2026 · 18 days · 4 km away
- 5,907 haChangaraOctober 2023 · 7 days · 4 km away
- 5,349 haChangara30 October 2021 · 11 days · 7 km away
- 7,226 haChangara16 October 2020 · 15 days · 9 km away
- 13,375 haChangara 7 October 2026 · 17 days · 17 km away
- 5,635 haChangara14 October 2020 · 11 days · 19 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Changara fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 October 2025 and 6 November 2025: 15 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 5,347 hectares (53.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Changara (5,375 ha, 0.9 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 42.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 75, class Very extreme.
- 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.