Malema fire, 18 August 2026 Malema
The fire started on 18 August 2026 in Malema, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,736 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 44th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 84 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.
- Burnt area
- 10,736ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 18 Aug 2026 – 25 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 18 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 315
- in a single hotspot: 102 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.3GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,749 ha in 2016, 3,522 ha in 2017, 1,836 ha in 2018, 2,957 ha in 2019, 1,146 ha in 2020, 2,816 ha in 2021, 154 ha in 2022, 1,860 ha in 2023, 2,169 ha in 2024, 8,137 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,455 ha that had burned before.
- 7,196 ha Malema fire, September 2025 18,733 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,354 ha Malema fire, September 2016 4,590 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,231 ha Malema fire, August 2017 5,819 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,086 ha Malema fire, August 2021 4,245 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 631 ha Malema fire, August 2018 3,048 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 154 ha Malema fire, August 2022 4,281 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12 ha Malema fire, August 2020 3,221 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Malema where it started10,802 ha reached on 16 Aug1.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug | 25.5 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Aug | 26.8 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 18 Aug | 27.3 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Aug | 28.1 °C | 32 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Aug | 28.1 °C | 35 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 21 Aug | 29.0 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Aug | 31.6 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Aug | 31.8 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Aug | 28.7 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Aug | 27.4 °C | 42 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 26 Aug after | 28.5 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 27 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Aug after | 28.5 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Aug after | 27.0 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Aug after | 29.7 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 31 Aug after | 30.4 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 1 Sept after | 30.4 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Sept after | 30.2 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 4 Sept after | 30.5 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Sept after | 31.1 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Sept after | 26.5 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Sept after | 27.4 °C | 35 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 10 Sept after | 28.1 °C | 44 % | 34 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 26 |
| 11 Sept after | 30.4 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
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 26 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 30: 2.0 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 · 315Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 18,733 haMalema7 September 2025 · 23 days · 5 km away
- 5,819 haMalemaAugust 2017 · 7 days · 9 km away
- 4,858 haMalema6 August 2020 · 5 days · 13 km away
- 5,596 haMalema20 August 2026 · 9 days · 32 km away
- 6,856 haMalema13 September 2016 · 8 days · 34 km away
- 5,508 haMalema30 August 2026 · 9 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Malema fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 August 2026 and 25 August 2026: 8 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 10,736 hectares (107.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Malema (10,802 ha, 1.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.