How long did the Mecula fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2026 and 19 August 2026: 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 3,236 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Mecula (3,257 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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 · 2026-08-15 → 2026-08-19

Mecula fire, 15 August 2026 Mecula

Out · last detection 17 Aug 2026, 10:45 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2026 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,236 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 484th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 451 in Mozambique in 2026, of 525.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area: 3,236ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 5days; 15 Aug 2026 – 19 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 15 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 67; in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start: 33; High · FWI index
Energy released: 512MW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 Aug 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug19 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

151617

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

The weather it burned in

32°high

38km/h · peak gust

31%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,542 ha in 2017, 727 ha in 2018, 224 ha in 2019, 1,364 ha in 2021, 1 ha in 2024, 465 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,618 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Mecula where it started

3,257 ha reached on 15 Aug

0.2 %

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)
15 Aug	28.2 °C	35 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
16 Aug	28.1 °C	36 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
17 Aug	27.9 °C	38 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
18 Aug	28.7 °C	37 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
19 Aug	28.6 °C	40 %	31 km/h	0.1 mm	High 29
20 Aug after	30.9 °C	31 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
21 Aug after	30.8 °C	42 %	34 km/h	0.2 mm	High 30
22 Aug after	32.2 °C	33 %	31 km/h	0.3 mm	High 29
23 Aug after	32.4 °C	27 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
24 Aug after	31.5 °C	30 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
25 Aug after	31.3 °C	38 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
26 Aug after	30.6 °C	41 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
27 Aug after	30.4 °C	37 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
28 Aug after	30.8 °C	33 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
29 Aug after	30.4 °C	32 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
30 Aug after	31.0 °C	38 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	High 37
31 Aug after	31.0 °C	36 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
1 Sept after	32.1 °C	29 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Aug 2026

After · 26 Aug 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 17 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 82 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak82 µg/m³

Days over the guideline7 days

PM1085 µg/m³

Optical depth1.03

WHO 15

13141516171819202122232425

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 · 67Every 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

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mecula fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2026 and 19 August 2026: 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 3,236 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Mecula (3,257 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.

Where it burned