Mecula fire, 17 September 2024 Mecula
The fire started on 17 September 2024 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,470 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 413th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 117 in Mozambique in 2024, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 3,470ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 17 Sept 2024 – 23 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 202
- in a single hotspot: 44 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 3 Oct.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 88 ha in 2018, 522 ha in 2020, 2,659 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,916 ha that had burned before.
- 2,514 ha Mavago fire, October 2022 54,544 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 145 ha Mecula fire, October 2022 5,298 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 90 ha Mecula fire, September 2020 9,756 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mecula where it started3,497 ha reached on 16 Sept0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Sept | 29.7 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Sept | 29.8 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Sept | 30.8 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Sept | 30.2 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 21 Sept | 31.3 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Sept | 29.7 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 23 Sept | 28.2 °C | 49 % | 43 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 24 Sept after | 27.9 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Sept after | 29.5 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 26 Sept after | 32.0 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Sept after | 31.7 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Sept after | 31.2 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 30 Sept after | 32.6 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Oct after | 32.7 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 2 Oct after | 31.0 °C | 36 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Oct after | 26.1 °C | 54 % | 47 km/h | 1.8 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 2024 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 202Every 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 · 14 km away
- 13,929 haMecula 9 October 2026 · 15 days · 17 km away
- 27,813 haMavago19 September 2020 · 21 days · 19 km away
- 22,469 haMavago7 September 2025 · 14 days · 22 km away
- 13,847 haMecula28 October 2019 · 6 days · 23 km away
- 12,111 haMecula 6 October 2026 · 18 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mecula fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2024 and 23 September 2024: 7 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 3,470 hectares (34.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mecula (3,497 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.