Macossa fire, July 2024 Macossa
The fire started on 27 July 2024 in Macossa, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,484 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 139th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 116 in Mozambique in 2024, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 3,484ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 27 Jul 2024 – 29 Jul 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 1
- in a single hotspot: 3 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
Where it burned
The weather it burned in
It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 35 ha in 2017, 183 ha in 2018, 606 ha in 2019, 710 ha in 2020, 134 ha in 2021, 491 ha in 2022, 1,307 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,269 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Macossa where it started3,507 ha reached on 31 Jul0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Jul | 30.2 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 28 Jul | 32.9 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Jul | 30.4 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Jul after | 26.5 °C | 50 % | 24 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 25 |
| 31 Jul after | 26.5 °C | 50 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 1 Aug after | 25.4 °C | 49 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Aug after | 24.8 °C | 48 % | 22 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 3 Aug after | 28.5 °C | 34 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Aug after | 29.4 °C | 30 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 5 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 22 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 6 Aug after | 25.6 °C | 54 % | 36 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 25 |
| 7 Aug after | 25.5 °C | 55 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 22 |
| 8 Aug after | 27.0 °C | 49 % | 18 km/h | 0.6 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 30 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 46: 3.1 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 · 1Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,805 haBárue22 August 2026 · 14 days · 9 km away
- 13,764 haBárue9 September 2022 · 16 days · 12 km away
- 13,314 haBárue12 September 2026 · 17 days · 19 km away
- 25,445 haBárue5 September 2016 · 18 days · 20 km away
- 30,185 haMacossa29 August 2025 · 25 days · 24 km away
- 27,713 haBárue1 September 2023 · 25 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Macossa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 July 2024 and 29 July 2024: 3 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 3,484 hectares (34.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Macossa (3,507 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.