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Malema fire, 22 August 2025 Malema, Lalaua

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2025, 11:02 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2025 in Malema, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 46,127 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 8 in Mozambique in 2025, of 313.

Burnt area
46,127ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
22 Aug 2025 – 18 Sept 2025
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
22 Aug
2025
Heat detections
2,792
in a single hotspot: 122 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
27.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
52km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,712 ha in 2016, 6,650 ha in 2017, 3,569 ha in 2018, 7,790 ha in 2019, 6,916 ha in 2020, 4,518 ha in 2021, 6,768 ha in 2022, 5,255 ha in 2023, 12,968 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 30,223 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Malema where it started
    29,827 ha reached on 18 Aug
    4.9 %
  2. Lalaua
    16,577 ha reached on 20 Aug
    3.6 %

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)
22 Aug 28.6 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Aug 30.1 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Aug 30.8 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Aug 30.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Aug 30.8 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Aug 31.0 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Aug 30.7 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug 30.5 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug 31.4 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Aug 31.2 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept 30.8 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Sept 29.2 °C 31 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Sept 29.9 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Sept 31.7 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Sept 31.1 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Sept 31.6 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Sept 29.1 °C 29 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Sept 31.1 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Sept 31.3 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
10 Sept 32.5 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Sept 30.9 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept 31.5 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Sept 31.2 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept 30.5 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Sept 28.9 °C 41 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Sept 30.6 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Sept 32.9 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Sept 33.1 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Sept after 32.1 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Sept after 31.2 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Sept after 31.9 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Sept after 33.1 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Sept after 32.0 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Sept after 31.4 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Sept after 33.1 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Sept after 31.2 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Sept after 27.8 °C 44 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Sept after 29.8 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 15 Aug 2025
After · 25 Sept 2025

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 26 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak58 µg/m³
Days over the guideline12 days
PM1059 µg/m³
Optical depth0.83
202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021
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 · 2,792Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Malema fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 August 2025 and 18 September 2025: 28 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 46,127 hectares (461.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Malema (29,827 ha, 4.9 %); Lalaua (16,577 ha, 3.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 52 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.

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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.