Chiuta fire, 24 August 2026 Chiuta
The fire started on 24 August 2026 in Chiuta, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,621 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 10th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 114 with a page). Number 74 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.
- Burnt area
- 11,621ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 24 Aug 2026 – 10 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 239
- in a single hotspot: 73 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,124 ha in 2016, 5,451 ha in 2017, 4,024 ha in 2018, 1,568 ha in 2019, 1,715 ha in 2020, 3,605 ha in 2021, 2,516 ha in 2022, 1,083 ha in 2023, 3,810 ha in 2024, 6,543 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,655 ha that had burned before.
- 6,280 ha Chiuta fire, September 2025 7,265 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,024 ha Chiuta fire, August 2018 8,906 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,518 ha Chiuta fire, September 2021 3,893 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,498 ha Chiuta fire, July 2024 4,189 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chiuta where it started11,681 ha reached on 24 Aug1.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug | 26.7 °C | 40 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Aug | 27.2 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 26 Aug | 29.2 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Aug | 25.5 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Aug | 25.0 °C | 40 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Aug | 25.9 °C | 46 % | 32 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Aug | 31.4 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 31 Aug | 30.5 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Sept | 30.9 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Sept | 30.3 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Sept | 31.9 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 4 Sept | 33.3 °C | 23 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 5 Sept | 31.8 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Sept | 29.8 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Sept | 28.5 °C | 37 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Sept | 22.9 °C | 60 % | 48 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 9 Sept | 22.9 °C | 57 % | 42 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 10 Sept | 28.2 °C | 44 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 11 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 40 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 12 Sept after | 30.9 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 13 Sept after | 31.3 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 15 Sept after | 32.2 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Sept after | 33.0 °C | 19 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 17 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 18 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 19 Sept after | 29.5 °C | 40 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
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 6 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 74 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 55: 3.6 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 · 239Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,265 haChiutaSeptember 2025 · 18 days · 1 km away
- 8,906 haChiutaAugust 2018 · 12 days · 5 km away
- 8,324 haMoatize9 September 2017 · 10 days · 24 km away
- 7,882 haMoatize13 September 2021 · 5 days · 25 km away
- 17,344 haMoatize5 September 2016 · 7 days · 28 km away
- 12,983 haTsanganoOctober 2022 · 12 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chiuta fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 August 2026 to 10 September 2026 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 August 2026 to 7 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,621 hectares (116.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chiuta (11,681 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.
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.