Chinde fire, August 2025 Chinde
The fire started on 29 August 2025 in Chinde, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,681 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 594th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 215 in Mozambique in 2025, of 313.
The power measured by the satellite is low (22.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,681ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 29 Aug 2025 – 12 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 29 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 200
- in a single hotspot: 23 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 432MW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 120 ha in 2016, 121 ha in 2021, 25 ha in 2022, 254 ha in 2023, 678 ha in 2024.
What happened to each town
-
Chinde where it started3,694 ha reached on 22 Aug1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Aug | 28.4 °C | 56 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 30 Aug | 28.9 °C | 57 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 31 Aug | 29.0 °C | 58 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 1 Sept | 27.6 °C | 54 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 2 Sept | 28.1 °C | 55 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Sept | 28.8 °C | 54 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 4 Sept | 29.5 °C | 55 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 5 Sept | 28.4 °C | 59 % | 28 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 6 Sept | 31.0 °C | 50 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 7 Sept | 30.6 °C | 57 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 23 |
| 8 Sept | 30.6 °C | 57 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 23 |
| 9 Sept | 30.2 °C | 60 % | 38 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 10 Sept | 30.0 °C | 55 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 11 Sept | 30.4 °C | 53 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 12 Sept | 30.6 °C | 50 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Sept after | 29.2 °C | 57 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 14 Sept after | 30.2 °C | 49 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 15 Sept after | 30.2 °C | 50 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 16 Sept after | 32.7 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Sept after | 36.0 °C | 34 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 18 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 49 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 58 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 20 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 52 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 21 Sept after | 29.5 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 22 Sept after | 31.1 °C | 42 % | 31 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 4 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 48 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 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 · 200Every 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 Chinde fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 August 2025 and 12 September 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 3,681 hectares (36.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chinde (3,694 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 50 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.