How long did the Dondo fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 September 2026 to 26 September 2026 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 September 2026 to 19 September 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,117 hectares (71.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Muanza (4,330 ha, 0.6 %); Dondo (2,822 ha, 1.2 %).

Is the Dondo fire still active?

No fire detections since 26 Sept 2026, 11:36 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

MZ · Mozambique · 2026-09-12 → 2026-09-26

Dondo fire, 12 September 2026 Muanza, Dondo

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2026, 11:36 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2026 in Dondo, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,117 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 47th largest in Sofala since 2016 (of 214 with a page). Number 131 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.

Burnt area: 7,117ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 15days; 12 Sept 2026 – 26 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 12 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 121; in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start: 22; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 26 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept26 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122232526

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

44km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 29 Sept.

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,166 ha in 2016, 1,132 ha in 2018, 1,226 ha in 2019, 1,208 ha in 2020, 1,682 ha in 2021, 3,093 ha in 2022, 1,088 ha in 2023, 2,913 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,415 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Muanza

4,330 ha reached on 12 Sept

0.6 %
Dondo where it started

2,822 ha reached on 12 Sept

1.2 %

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)
12 Sept	32.4 °C	41 %	31 km/h	0.1 mm	High 22
13 Sept	32.2 °C	38 %	32 km/h	0.2 mm	High 26
14 Sept	31.0 °C	37 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
15 Sept	34.1 °C	34 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
16 Sept	36.0 °C	22 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
17 Sept	36.5 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
18 Sept	33.3 °C	34 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
19 Sept	30.9 °C	50 %	30 km/h	1.4 mm	Moderate 16
20 Sept	31.6 °C	41 %	32 km/h	0.8 mm	High 23
21 Sept	30.8 °C	45 %	25 km/h	0.2 mm	High 22
22 Sept	31.5 °C	45 %	34 km/h	0.1 mm	High 25
23 Sept	31.7 °C	43 %	31 km/h	0.3 mm	High 26
24 Sept	31.9 °C	42 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	High 27
25 Sept	31.4 °C	39 %	33 km/h	0.2 mm	High 28
26 Sept	32.9 °C	32 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
27 Sept after	35.9 °C	32 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
28 Sept after	35.5 °C	45 %	38 km/h	0.2 mm	High 37
29 Sept after	30.3 °C	61 %	47 km/h	3.9 mm	Low 9

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 5 Sept 2026

After · 3 Oct 2026

Before After

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 16 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 50 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak50 µg/m³

Days over the guideline7 days

PM1052 µg/m³

Optical depth0.66

WHO 15

1011121314151617181920212223242526272829

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 · 121Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Dondo fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 12 September 2026 to 26 September 2026 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 September 2026 to 19 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,117 hectares (71.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Muanza (4,330 ha, 0.6 %); Dondo (2,822 ha, 1.2 %).
Is the Dondo fire still active?: No fire detections since 26 Sept 2026, 11:36 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned