Macossa fire, 11 September 2026 Macossa
The fire started on 11 September 2026 in Macossa, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,298 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 90th largest in Manica since 2016 (of 198 with a page). Number 273 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.
- Burnt area
- 4,298ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 11 Sept 2026 – 23 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 11 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 92
- in a single hotspot: 45 MW
- Danger at start
- 18
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.9 mm on 29 Sept.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 795 ha in 2016, 243 ha in 2017, 1,280 ha in 2018, 1,916 ha in 2019, 1,620 ha in 2020, 495 ha in 2021, 886 ha in 2022, 1,432 ha in 2023, 1,436 ha in 2024, 1,439 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,886 ha that had burned before.
- 979 ha Macossa fire, September 2025 3,645 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 778 ha Macossa fire, September 2016 8,469 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 698 ha Macossa fire, September 2022 3,992 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 484 ha Macossa fire, September 2018 7,699 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 448 ha Macossa fire, August 2025 4,789 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 61 ha Macossa fire, September 2022 5,238 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12 ha Macossa fire, August 2025 30,185 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Macossa where it started4,318 ha reached on 12 Sept0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Sept | 28.9 °C | 43 % | 21 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 12 Sept | 30.7 °C | 35 % | 23 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Sept | 30.5 °C | 35 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 14 Sept | 30.3 °C | 33 % | 25 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Sept | 31.4 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Sept | 33.2 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Sept | 34.0 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Sept | 31.3 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Sept | 30.3 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Sept | 30.3 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Sept | 29.8 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Sept | 30.5 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 23 Sept | 29.8 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Sept after | 31.3 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 25 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 31 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Sept after | 35.7 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 60 % | 44 km/h | 4.9 mm | Low 7 |
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 16 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 114 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 74: 4.9 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 · 92Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 30,185 haMacossa29 August 2025 · 25 days · 14 km away
- 28,721 haMacossa11 September 2026 · 18 days · 14 km away
- 27,713 haBárue1 September 2023 · 25 days · 21 km away
- 13,314 haBárue12 September 2026 · 17 days · 26 km away
- 12,745 haBárue25 September 2017 · 17 days · 27 km away
- 25,445 haBárue5 September 2016 · 18 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Macossa fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 September 2026 to 23 September 2026 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 September 2026 to 16 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,298 hectares (43.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Macossa (4,318 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.