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Mecula fire, 15 August 2026 Mecula

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2026, 22:27 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2026 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,675 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 120th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 136 in Mozambique in 2026, of 525.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.6 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
6,675ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
15 Aug 2026 – 11 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Aug
2026
Heat detections
157
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
919MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug11 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1516171820212324252627293031123456781011

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
40km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 259 ha in 2016, 918 ha in 2017, 3,174 ha in 2018, 3,087 ha in 2019, 2,807 ha in 2020, 3,925 ha in 2021, 1,836 ha in 2022, 1,202 ha in 2023, 2,671 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,632 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mecula where it started
    6,712 ha reached on 15 Aug
    0.4 %

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 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Aug 27.8 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Aug 28.1 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Aug 28.6 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
19 Aug 27.7 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
20 Aug 30.2 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
21 Aug 30.5 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
22 Aug 31.5 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.6 mm High 25
23 Aug 32.7 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Aug 31.4 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Aug 30.8 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Aug 30.6 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Aug 29.2 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
28 Aug 30.7 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Aug 30.8 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Aug 30.9 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
31 Aug 31.3 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept 32.0 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Sept 31.1 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Sept 31.5 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Sept 31.9 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Sept 30.5 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Sept 31.8 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Sept 31.1 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Sept 29.6 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Sept 28.8 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
10 Sept 30.9 °C 41 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
11 Sept 31.9 °C 37 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
12 Sept after 32.7 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Sept after 32.2 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Sept after 31.8 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Sept after 32.7 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Sept after 31.4 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Sept after 32.0 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Sept after 32.6 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Sept after 32.3 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Sept after 32.2 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Sept after 32.9 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2026
After · 18 Sept 2026

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 49: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak82 µg/m³
Days over the guideline18 days
PM1085 µg/m³
Optical depth1.23
131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314
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 · 157Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mecula fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 August 2026 to 11 September 2026 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 August 2026 to 6 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,675 hectares (66.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mecula (6,712 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very 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.

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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.