Liúpo fire, August 2026 Liúpo
The fire started on 30 August 2026 in Liúpo, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,354 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 10th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 30 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.
- Burnt area
- 27,354ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 31days
- 30 Aug 2026 – 29 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 30 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 879
- in a single hotspot: 44 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.4GW
- 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 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.0 mm on 30 Sept.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13,847 ha in 2016, 11,374 ha in 2017, 15,023 ha in 2018, 4,120 ha in 2019, 12,456 ha in 2020, 7,269 ha in 2021, 16,970 ha in 2022, 14,180 ha in 2023, 7,116 ha in 2024, 12,157 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 27,129 ha that had burned before.
- 13,722 ha Liúpo fire, October 2022 18,931 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,913 ha Liúpo fire, September 2018 13,785 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,876 ha Liúpo fire, September 2020 16,681 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,354 ha Liúpo fire, September 2023 7,335 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,660 ha Liúpo fire, October 2017 5,440 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,174 ha Liúpo fire, October 2025 15,883 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,840 ha Liúpo fire, September 2016 4,522 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,516 ha Liúpo fire, October 2017 5,527 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Liúpo where it started27,519 ha reached on 30 Aug13 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Aug | 28.5 °C | 50 % | 36 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 31 Aug | 29.2 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Sept | 27.7 °C | 55 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 2 Sept | 29.0 °C | 51 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 3 Sept | 29.2 °C | 47 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 4 Sept | 30.8 °C | 41 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Sept | 28.9 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 6 Sept | 30.7 °C | 44 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Sept | 28.8 °C | 49 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Sept | 27.7 °C | 49 % | 37 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Sept | 28.4 °C | 63 % | 33 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 10 Sept | 28.2 °C | 59 % | 30 km/h | 3.2 mm | Low 6 |
| 11 Sept | 29.5 °C | 50 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 12 Sept | 29.1 °C | 49 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 13 Sept | 29.5 °C | 46 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 14 Sept | 29.4 °C | 48 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Sept | 29.7 °C | 56 % | 35 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Sept | 28.7 °C | 58 % | 45 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 17 Sept | 29.3 °C | 56 % | 45 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 18 Sept | 29.4 °C | 47 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 19 Sept | 29.0 °C | 51 % | 30 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 20 Sept | 29.4 °C | 47 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 21 Sept | 29.8 °C | 56 % | 33 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 22 Sept | 29.9 °C | 53 % | 30 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 23 Sept | 29.0 °C | 48 % | 41 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 24 |
| 24 Sept | 27.6 °C | 60 % | 33 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 25 Sept | 28.1 °C | 59 % | 30 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 26 Sept | 28.7 °C | 61 % | 26 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 27 Sept | 31.4 °C | 52 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Sept | 32.6 °C | 48 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 29 Sept | 30.2 °C | 54 % | 36 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 61 % | 41 km/h | 3.0 mm | Low 9 |
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 14 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 62 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 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 · 879Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,931 haLiúpo3 October 2022 · 14 days · 7 km away
- 13,785 haLiúpo25 September 2018 · 5 days · 7 km away
- 15,883 haLiúpo11 October 2025 · 31 days · 10 km away
- 16,681 haLiúpo8 September 2020 · 14 days · 12 km away
- 9,701 haLiúpo 27 September 2026 · 27 days · 14 km away
- 8,508 haLiúpo19 September 2023 · 10 days · 15 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Liúpo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 August 2026 to 29 September 2026 (31 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 August 2026 to 22 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 27,354 hectares (273.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Liúpo (27,519 ha, 13 %).
- Is the Liúpo fire still active?
- No fire detections since 29 Sept 2026, 23:29 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 41 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.