How long did the Eráti fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 August 2025 and 9 September 2025: 18 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 5,120 hectares (51.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Eráti (5,132 ha, 0.9 %); Namuno (20 ha, 0.0 %); Mecubúri (0 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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 · 2025-08-23 → 2025-09-09

Eráti fire, August 2025 Eráti, Namuno, Mecubúri

Out · last detection 10 Sept 2025, 10:31 UTC

The fire started on 23 August 2025 in Eráti, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,120 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 138th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 125 in Mozambique in 2025, of 313.

Burnt area: 5,120ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 18days; 23 Aug 2025 – 9 Sept 2025
Municipalities hit: 3; districts
Started on: 23 Aug; 2025
Heat detections: 123; in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start: 43; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 1.0GW; sum of detected power

Play back 10 Sept 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Aug9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

23252627282930311234568910

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

38km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 884 ha in 2017, 778 ha in 2021, 213 ha in 2023, 937 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,158 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Eráti where it started

5,132 ha reached on 23 Aug

0.9 %
Namuno

20 ha reached on 30 Aug

0.0 %
Mecubúri

0 ha reached on 26 Aug

0.0 %

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)
23 Aug	32.1 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
24 Aug	32.7 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
25 Aug	31.7 °C	28 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
26 Aug	31.7 °C	28 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
27 Aug	31.9 °C	29 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
28 Aug	31.9 °C	30 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
29 Aug	31.8 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
30 Aug	32.4 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
31 Aug	32.4 °C	26 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Sept	31.1 °C	31 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
2 Sept	30.7 °C	34 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
3 Sept	31.8 °C	28 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
4 Sept	32.5 °C	31 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
5 Sept	32.1 °C	30 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
6 Sept	32.7 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
7 Sept	31.2 °C	33 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
8 Sept	31.1 °C	42 %	31 km/h	0.5 mm	High 34
9 Sept	33.5 °C	31 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
10 Sept after	32.6 °C	31 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
11 Sept after	30.3 °C	40 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
12 Sept after	31.0 °C	35 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
13 Sept after	32.7 °C	26 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
14 Sept after	32.3 °C	31 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
15 Sept after	31.8 °C	35 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
16 Sept after	32.8 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
17 Sept after	33.1 °C	32 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 43
18 Sept after	34.0 °C	34 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
19 Sept after	32.6 °C	40 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 16 Aug 2025

After · 16 Sept 2025

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 26 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak41 µg/m³

Days over the guideline1 day

PM1042 µg/m³

Optical depth0.47

WHO 15

2122232425262728293031123456789101112

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 · 123Every 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 Eráti fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 August 2025 and 9 September 2025: 18 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 5,120 hectares (51.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Eráti (5,132 ha, 0.9 %); Namuno (20 ha, 0.0 %); Mecubúri (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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