How long did the Macanga fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2025 and 18 September 2025: 7 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 3,029 hectares (30.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Macanga (3,052 ha, 0.4 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 38 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 · 2025-09-12 → 2025-09-18

Macanga fire, September 2025 Macanga

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2025, 11:21 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2025 in Macanga, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,029 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 112th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 114 with a page). Number 307 in Mozambique in 2025, of 313.

Burnt area: 3,029ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 7days; 12 Sept 2025 – 18 Sept 2025
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 12 Sept; 2025
Heat detections: 76; in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Energy released: 642MW; sum of detected power

Play back 18 Sept 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

32°high

38km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

55% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 787 ha in 2016, 710 ha in 2017, 1,210 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,666 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Macanga where it started

3,052 ha reached on 12 Sept

0.4 %

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	28.6 °C	25 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
13 Sept	27.4 °C	34 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
14 Sept	28.2 °C	29 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
15 Sept	27.7 °C	30 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
16 Sept	30.5 °C	24 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
17 Sept	31.9 °C	19 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
18 Sept	30.2 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
19 Sept after	30.0 °C	32 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
20 Sept after	25.4 °C	38 %	45 km/h	0.6 mm	High 32
21 Sept after	26.3 °C	38 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
22 Sept after	29.4 °C	31 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
23 Sept after	30.6 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
24 Sept after	30.1 °C	25 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
25 Sept after	30.2 °C	27 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
26 Sept after	26.8 °C	35 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
27 Sept after	28.2 °C	32 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
28 Sept after	31.9 °C	22 %	30 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 · 5 Sept 2025

After · 25 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 18 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak40 µg/m³

Days over the guideline10 days

PM1040 µg/m³

Optical depth0.95

WHO 15

101112131415161718192021

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 · 76Every 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 Macanga fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2025 and 18 September 2025: 7 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 3,029 hectares (30.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Macanga (3,052 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 38 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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What really happened?

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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