Mecula fire, 27 September 2026 Mecula
The fire started on 27 September 2026 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,781 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 349th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 334 in Mozambique in 2026, of 525.
- Burnt area
- 3,781ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 27 Sept 2026 – 5 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 66
- in a single hotspot: 108 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 984MW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 665 ha in 2016, 518 ha in 2017, 512 ha in 2018, 2,267 ha in 2019, 898 ha in 2020, 1,366 ha in 2021, 88 ha in 2022, 47 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,111 ha that had burned before.
- 1,681 ha Mecula fire, September 2019 7,144 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 586 ha Mecula fire, September 2019 3,024 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 91 ha Mecula fire, November 2021 15,400 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8 ha Mecula fire, August 2017 4,663 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mecula where it started3,802 ha reached on 27 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Sept | 33.9 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Sept | 34.6 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 29 Sept | 33.7 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Sept | 33.5 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 35 |
| 1 Oct | 31.0 °C | 45 % | 27 km/h | 6.7 mm | Low 7 |
| 2 Oct | 31.0 °C | 44 % | 35 km/h | 8.7 mm | Very low 5 |
| 3 Oct | 32.3 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 4 Oct | 32.6 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 5 Oct | 33.5 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 6 Oct after | 34.7 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Oct after | 32.6 °C | 36 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Oct after | 35.3 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Oct after | 34.9 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 10 Oct after | 35.7 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Oct after | 35.6 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Oct after | 35.1 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Oct after | 35.2 °C | 26 % | 48 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Oct after | 35.2 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Oct after | 35.1 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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 29 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 41 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 · 66Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mecula fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 September 2026 to 5 October 2026 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 September 2026 to 1 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,781 hectares (37.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mecula (3,802 ha, 0.2 %).
- Is the Mecula fire still active?
- No fire detections since 5 Oct 2026, 23:16 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.