Macossa fire, August 2020 Macossa
The fire started on 13 August 2020 in Macossa, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,699 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 125th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 123 in Mozambique in 2020, of 193.
- Burnt area
- 3,699ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 13 Aug 2020 – 18 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 144
- in a single hotspot: 95 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.9GW
- 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 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 21 Aug.
This area had burned before
66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,987 ha in 2018, 821 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,438 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Macossa where it started3,709 ha reached on 13 Aug0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Aug | 30.0 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 14 Aug | 26.6 °C | 36 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 15 Aug | 27.9 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Aug | 32.1 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 17 Aug | 29.7 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 18 Aug | 29.1 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 27 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Aug after | 22.7 °C | 68 % | 47 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 21 Aug after | 24.9 °C | 58 % | 46 km/h | 4.1 mm | Low 8 |
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.
Detections table · 144Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,588 haMacossa9 September 2025 · 14 days · 23 km away
- 8,430 haMacossa30 August 2025 · 25 days · 30 km away
- 8,469 haMacossaSeptember 2016 · 9 days · 36 km away
- 7,699 haMacossaSeptember 2018 · 9 days · 37 km away
- 28,721 haMacossa11 September 2026 · 18 days · 38 km away
- 7,397 haGuro16 October 2017 · 3 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Macossa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 August 2020 and 18 August 2020: 6 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 3,699 hectares (37.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Macossa (3,709 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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
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.