How long did the Mecula fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 October 2026 to 17 October 2026 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 October 2026 to 12 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,991 hectares (49.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Mecula (5,025 ha, 0.3 %).

Is the Mecula fire still active?

No fire detections since 17 Oct 2026, 23:09 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 43 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.

MZ · Mozambique · 2026-10-04 → 2026-10-17

Mecula fire, 4 October 2026 Mecula

Out · last detection 17 Oct 2026, 23:09 UTC

The fire started on 4 October 2026 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,991 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 216th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 197 in Mozambique in 2026, of 525.

Burnt area: 4,991ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 14days; 4 Oct 2026 – 17 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 4 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 92; in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start: 7; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 644MW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Oct17 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

4678910111314151617

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

43km/h · peak gust

21%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 590 ha in 2016, 1,317 ha in 2017, 778 ha in 2018, 970 ha in 2019, 439 ha in 2020, 755 ha in 2022, 326 ha in 2023, 660 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,330 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Mecula where it started

5,025 ha reached on 4 Oct

0.3 %

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)
4 Oct	31.2 °C	44 %	34 km/h	2.1 mm	Low 7
5 Oct	31.8 °C	31 %	34 km/h	1.7 mm	Moderate 12
6 Oct	33.3 °C	29 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
7 Oct	32.0 °C	35 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 21
8 Oct	34.8 °C	28 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
9 Oct	34.2 °C	27 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
10 Oct	34.3 °C	30 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	High 24
11 Oct	34.8 °C	26 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
12 Oct	34.0 °C	29 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
13 Oct	33.9 °C	27 %	42 km/h	0.4 mm	High 31
14 Oct	34.2 °C	26 %	38 km/h	0.1 mm	High 32
15 Oct	34.6 °C	21 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
16 Oct	34.1 °C	22 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
17 Oct	33.6 °C	25 %	38 km/h	0.2 mm	High 38
18 Oct after	32.7 °C	29 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 27 Sept 2026

After · 23 Oct 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 10 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 53 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak53 µg/m³

Days over the guideline5 days

PM1054 µg/m³

Optical depth0.67

WHO 15

234567891011121314151617

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 · 92Every 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?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 October 2026 to 17 October 2026 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 October 2026 to 12 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,991 hectares (49.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Mecula (5,025 ha, 0.3 %).
Is the Mecula fire still active?: No fire detections since 17 Oct 2026, 23:09 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 43 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

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.

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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.

Where it burned