How long did the Massinga fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 14 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (10 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.

How much area did it burn?

There is no perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 3,066 hectares with fire (30.7 km²), a rough figure; GWIS will give its own when it publishes the perimeter, which can take several days.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Massinga (2,730 ha, 0.4 %); Vilankulo (336 ha, 0.1 %).

Is the Massinga fire still active?

No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:47 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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.

MZ · Mozambique · 2026-10-14 → 2026-10-23

Massinga fire, October 2026 Massinga, Vilankulo

Dying down · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 11:47 UTC

Satellites first detected fire on 14 October 2026 in Massinga, Mozambique. It has been active for 10 days, with 239 heat detections and an area with fire of about 3,066 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across 2 municipalities.

GWIS (Copernicus) has not yet published the perimeter of this fire. It rebuilds it from hotspots, which can take several days, and it does not always arrive. For now the area is the one rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per pixel). If the perimeter arrives, this page picks it up on its own and keeps the same address.

Is it still active?

No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:47 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

Area with fire: ≈ 3,066ha; rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
Duration: 10days; 14 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 14 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 239; in a single hotspot: 151 MW
Danger at start: 8; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 3.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

34°high

49km/h · peak gust

30%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 23 Oct.

What happened to each town

Massinga where it started

2,730 ha reached on 14 Oct

0.4 %
Vilankulo

336 ha reached on 14 Oct

0.1 %

Area with fire inside each municipality, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until the official perimeter arrives. 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)
13 Oct	30.2 °C	52 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
14 Oct	31.2 °C	56 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 8
15 Oct	32.7 °C	45 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Low 10
16 Oct	32.7 °C	37 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 12
17 Oct	32.8 °C	39 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 15
18 Oct	34.1 °C	30 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
19 Oct	33.3 °C	35 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
20 Oct	32.1 °C	50 %	32 km/h	3.2 mm	Very low 4
21 Oct	34.1 °C	46 %	32 km/h	0.3 mm	Moderate 12
22 Oct	33.9 °C	56 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 13
23 Oct	32.9 °C	63 %	56 km/h	1.2 mm	Low 11

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 7 Oct 2026

After · 23 Oct 2026

Before After

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 20 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 35 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak35 µg/m³

Days over the guideline2 days

PM1039 µg/m³

Optical depth0.87

WHO 15

111213141516171819202122

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 · 239Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Massinga fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 14 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (10 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.
How much area did it burn?: There is no perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 3,066 hectares with fire (30.7 km²), a rough figure; GWIS will give its own when it publishes the perimeter, which can take several days.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Massinga (2,730 ha, 0.4 %); Vilankulo (336 ha, 0.1 %).
Is the Massinga fire still active?: No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:47 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 23, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.