Mecula fire, 17 October 2025 Mecula
The fire started on 17 October 2025 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,103 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 149th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 95 in Mozambique in 2025, of 313.
- Burnt area
- 6,103ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 17 Oct 2025 – 24 Oct 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 180
- in a single hotspot: 86 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,568 ha in 2016, 3,358 ha in 2017, 2,792 ha in 2018, 124 ha in 2019, 2,251 ha in 2020, 878 ha in 2021, 281 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,399 ha that had burned before.
- 3,358 ha Mecula fire, September 2017 10,632 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,792 ha Mecula fire, October 2018 14,868 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 614 ha Mecula fire, September 2020 4,409 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 281 ha Mecula fire, September 2024 3,567 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 54 ha Mecula fire, August 2016 3,230 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5 ha Mecula fire, October 2019 5,186 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mecula where it started6,143 ha reached on 16 Oct0.3 %
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 Oct | 32.4 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Oct | 31.2 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Oct | 32.6 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
| 20 Oct | 31.8 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Oct | 31.9 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Oct | 33.7 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Oct | 33.1 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Oct | 33.2 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Oct after | 34.5 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Oct after | 34.4 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Oct after | 34.5 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Oct after | 34.2 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 29 Oct after | 33.7 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Oct after | 33.9 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Oct after | 34.0 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Nov after | 33.8 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Nov after | 32.8 °C | 34 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Nov after | 33.4 °C | 42 % | 46 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 35 |
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 21 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 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 · 180Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,868 haMecula12 October 2018 · 17 days · 5 km away
- 31,277 haMecula19 September 2022 · 39 days · 18 km away
- 39,524 haMecula17 October 2025 · 18 days · 20 km away
- 28,669 haMecula29 August 2021 · 14 days · 22 km away
- 21,464 haMarrupa17 September 2021 · 13 days · 36 km away
- 16,120 haMecula30 July 2018 · 15 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mecula fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 October 2025 and 24 October 2025: 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 6,103 hectares (61.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mecula (6,143 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.