Mecula fire, 8 September 2026 Mecula
The fire started on 8 September 2026 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,795 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 58th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 85 in Mozambique in 2026, of 525.
- Burnt area
- 9,795ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 8 Sept 2026 – 22 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 237
- in a single hotspot: 33 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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: 1.7 mm on 1 Oct.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,320 ha in 2016, 2,107 ha in 2017, 1,661 ha in 2018, 237 ha in 2019, 370 ha in 2020, 4,448 ha in 2021, 223 ha in 2022, 912 ha in 2023, 1,483 ha in 2024, 1,587 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,173 ha that had burned before.
- 4,013 ha Mecula fire, August 2021 28,669 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,650 ha Mecula fire, August 2017 4,523 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,560 ha Mecula fire, September 2025 10,627 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 230 ha Mecula fire, August 2020 11,391 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 184 ha Mecula fire, August 2019 5,483 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 140 ha Mecula fire, August 2020 6,791 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 91 ha Mecula fire, July 2016 7,214 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 72 ha Mecula fire, August 2021 3,755 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mecula where it started9,851 ha reached on 8 Sept0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Sept | 29.4 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Sept | 28.6 °C | 41 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 31 |
| 10 Sept | 30.7 °C | 41 % | 33 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Sept | 31.7 °C | 37 % | 26 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Sept | 32.6 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Sept | 32.1 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Sept | 31.6 °C | 30 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 15 Sept | 32.5 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 16 Sept | 31.3 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 17 Sept | 31.8 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Sept | 32.4 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Sept | 32.2 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Sept | 32.1 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Sept | 32.8 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Sept | 30.8 °C | 39 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Sept after | 30.5 °C | 44 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Sept after | 31.6 °C | 42 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 25 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 40 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 27 Sept after | 33.0 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Sept after | 33.2 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 30 Sept after | 32.0 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Oct after | 29.8 °C | 48 % | 26 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 13 |
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 9 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 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 · 237Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 28,669 haMecula29 August 2021 · 14 days · 6 km away
- 31,277 haMecula19 September 2022 · 39 days · 16 km away
- 12,038 haMecula20 August 2016 · 10 days · 24 km away
- 15,400 haMecula1 November 2021 · 19 days · 26 km away
- 12,474 haMecula22 September 2018 · 7 days · 28 km away
- 18,777 haMecula16 August 2026 · 30 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mecula fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 September 2026 to 22 September 2026 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 September 2026 to 22 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,795 hectares (98.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mecula (9,851 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.
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.