Satellites first detected fire on 15 October 2026 in Gondola, Mozambique. It was active for 9 days, with 263 heat detections and an area with fire of about 3,430 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across 2 municipalities.
GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in August 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.
matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
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Burned area
satellite only
≈ 3,430ha
Estimated from hotspots: no perimeter has been published yet.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
15 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate from the VIIRS pixels that saw fire. It will change when the perimeter is published.
Duration by satellite
satellite only
9days
15 Oct 2026 to 23 Oct 2026: first and last day with fire on the page.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
last detection: 23 Oct 2026, 11:49 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only
15 Oct 2026
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
Date
15 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only
263
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 62 MW.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
Date
15 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only
305MW
Total radiative power on 22 October 2026; hotspots that day: 43.
Source
NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
Date
22 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model
20.5FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 3.
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings ›
Weather during the fire
model
39.1°C · 25% RH
High of 39.1 °C and minimum humidity of 25% on 22 October 2026; gusts of 45 km/h on 20 October 2026.
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
ⓘThis page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
GWIS (Copernicus) has not yet published the perimeter of this fire. It rebuilds it from hotspots, which can take several days, and it does not always arrive. For now the area is the one rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per pixel). If the perimeter arrives, this page picks it up on its own and keeps the same address.
Area with fire
≈ 3,430ha
rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
Duration
9days
15 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Oct
2026
Heat detections
263
in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
189MW
detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
15 Oct23 Oct
Play back23 Oct 2026
How it evolved, day by day
18 Oct20 Oct22 Oct
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
39°high
45km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.5 mm on 24 Oct.
Area with fire inside each municipality, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until the official perimeter arrives. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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)
15 Oct
33.0 °C
35 %
31 km/h
0.0 mm
Moderate 20
16 Oct
33.1 °C
31 %
34 km/h
0.0 mm
High 26
17 Oct
33.4 °C
28 %
31 km/h
0.0 mm
High 25
18 Oct
34.5 °C
28 %
27 km/h
0.0 mm
High 26
19 Oct
37.1 °C
22 %
32 km/h
0.0 mm
High 32
20 Oct
37.9 °C
23 %
45 km/h
0.1 mm
High 31
21 Oct
34.3 °C
45 %
23 km/h
0.2 mm
High 22
22 Oct
39.1 °C
25 %
31 km/h
0.2 mm
High 30
23 Oct
35.5 °C
38 %
41 km/h
3.0 mm
High 27
24 Oct after
25.0 °C
77 %
41 km/h
6.5 mm
Very low 1
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 8 Oct 2026
After · 30 Oct 2026
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 19 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak58µg/m³
Days over the guideline7days
PM1060µg/m³
Optical depth0.72
WHO 15
13 Oct16 Oct19 Oct22 Oct
GoodFairModeratePoorVery poorExtremely 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· 263Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.›
⬇ Download CSVTimes in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 15 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (9 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.
How much area did it burn?
There is no perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 3,430 hectares with fire (34.3 km²), a rough figure; GWIS will give its own when it publishes the perimeter, which can take several days.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gondola (2,324 ha, 0.9 %); Vanduzi (1,120 ha, 0.4 %).
Is the Gondola fire still active?
No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:49 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.
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 errorHow we know this›
No perimeter yet: the area (≈ 3,430 ha) is estimated by counting VIIRS pixels with fire, about 14 ha each.
Dates of the first and last VIIRS detection of the cluster. 263 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.