Mecula fire, 6 October 2026 Mecula
The fire started on 6 October 2026 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,111 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 36th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 567 with a page). Number 65 in Mozambique in 2026, of 525.
Is it still active?
No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:51 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
- Burnt area
- 12,111ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 6 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 187
- in a single hotspot: 83 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.5GW
- 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
72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,306 ha in 2016, 1,853 ha in 2017, 2,613 ha in 2018, 2,296 ha in 2019, 2,571 ha in 2020, 4,356 ha in 2021, 2,004 ha in 2022, 1,735 ha in 2023, 1,253 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,662 ha that had burned before.
- 2,900 ha Mecula fire, November 2021 7,835 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,358 ha Mecula fire, October 2023 3,269 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 685 ha Mecula fire, August 2025 4,054 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 567 ha Mecula fire, August 2025 8,688 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 200 ha Mecula fire, October 2022 3,053 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 152 ha Mecula fire, October 2019 16,619 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mecula where it started12,192 ha reached on 6 Oct0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Oct | 34.7 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 7 Oct | 33.3 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Oct | 35.5 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 9 Oct | 35.6 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Oct | 35.2 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Oct | 34.5 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 12 Oct | 34.0 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Oct | 34.1 °C | 28 % | 43 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Oct | 34.2 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Oct | 35.0 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Oct | 34.2 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Oct | 34.2 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Oct | 33.1 °C | 28 % | 34 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.
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 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).
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 · 187Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 16,619 haMecula23 October 2019 · 10 days · 13 km away
- 54,544 haMavago8 October 2022 · 27 days · 28 km away
- 13,929 haMecula 9 October 2026 · 15 days · 28 km away
- 27,813 haMavago19 September 2020 · 21 days · 30 km away
- 21,220 haMavago 16 October 2026 · 8 days · 31 km away
- 21,223 haMavago26 September 2020 · 10 days · 38 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 6 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 October 2026 to 16 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 12,111 hectares (121.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mecula (12,192 ha, 0.7 %).
- Is the Mecula fire still active?
- No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:51 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.