Mecula fire, 13 October 2023 Mecula
The fire started on 13 October 2023 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,285 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 466th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 105 in Mozambique in 2023, of 128.
- Burnt area
- 3,285ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 13 Oct 2023 – 17 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 99
- in a single hotspot: 61 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 20 Oct.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 148 ha in 2016, 3 ha in 2017, 1,676 ha in 2018, 904 ha in 2019, 642 ha in 2020, 1,339 ha in 2021, 633 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,981 ha that had burned before.
- 1,358 ha Mecula fire, October 2018 9,034 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,339 ha Mecula fire, September 2021 3,326 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 380 ha Mavago fire, October 2022 54,544 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mecula where it started3,309 ha reached on 13 Oct0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct | 34.5 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Oct | 34.7 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 Oct | 33.2 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 34 |
| 16 Oct | 35.2 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Oct | 34.4 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Oct after | 33.3 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Oct after | 31.3 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Oct after | 30.1 °C | 41 % | 33 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 22 |
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.
Detections table · 99Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 54,544 haMavago8 October 2022 · 27 days · 10 km away
- 27,813 haMavago19 September 2020 · 21 days · 14 km away
- 16,619 haMecula23 October 2019 · 10 days · 21 km away
- 13,929 haMecula 9 October 2026 · 15 days · 21 km away
- 22,469 haMavago7 September 2025 · 14 days · 30 km away
- 21,220 haMavago 16 October 2026 · 8 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mecula fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 October 2023 and 17 October 2023: 5 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 3,285 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mecula (3,309 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 42 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.