Macossa fire, September 2023 Macossa, Bárue
The fire started on 4 September 2023 in Macossa, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,207 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 94th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 71 in Mozambique in 2023, of 128.
- Burnt area
- 4,207ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 4 Sept 2023 – 12 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 4 Sept
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 144
- in a single hotspot: 201 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.5GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 14 Sept.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,077 ha in 2016, 1,414 ha in 2017, 2,362 ha in 2018, 2,074 ha in 2019, 728 ha in 2020, 1,999 ha in 2021, 2,615 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,197 ha that had burned before.
- 2,054 ha Macossa fire, September 2022 5,238 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,679 ha Macossa fire, September 2016 8,469 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,025 ha Macossa fire, September 2018 7,699 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 397 ha Bárue fire, September 2020 3,879 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Macossa where it started3,664 ha reached on 31 Aug0.4 %
-
560 ha reached on 2 Sept0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Sept | 29.6 °C | 32 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Sept | 29.9 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 6 Sept | 31.7 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Sept | 29.0 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 8 Sept | 29.6 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 9 Sept | 29.1 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Sept | 31.2 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Sept | 33.8 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 12 Sept | 33.9 °C | 28 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 13 Sept after | 19.7 °C | 77 % | 51 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 14 Sept after | 25.7 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
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
- 28,721 haMacossa11 September 2026 · 18 days · 4 km away
- 27,713 haBárue1 September 2023 · 25 days · 21 km away
- 30,185 haMacossa29 August 2025 · 25 days · 22 km away
- 12,745 haBárue25 September 2017 · 17 days · 22 km away
- 12,021 haBárue30 September 2017 · 18 days · 26 km away
- 9,737 haBárue17 September 2022 · 23 days · 26 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Macossa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 September 2023 and 12 September 2023: 9 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 4,207 hectares (42.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Macossa (3,664 ha, 0.4 %); Bárue (560 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
- 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.