How long did the Mecula fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 October 2026 to 15 October 2026 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 October 2026 to 12 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,499 hectares (45.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mecula (3,190 ha, 0.2 %); Mavago (1,335 ha, 0.1 %).

Is the Mecula fire still active?

No fire detections since 14 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 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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 · 2026-10-03 → 2026-10-15

Mecula fire, 3 October 2026 Mecula, Mavago

Out · last detection 14 Oct 2026, 23:09 UTC

The fire started on 3 October 2026 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,499 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 270th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 580 with a page). Number 254 in Mozambique in 2026, of 537.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Mavago · 2024 Mecula · 2025 Mavago · 2019 Mecula · 2026

Burnt area: 4,499ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 13days; 3 Oct 2026 – 15 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 3 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 71; in a single hotspot: 140 MW
Danger at start: 14; Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power: 102MW; detected power per day, on average

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Oct15 Oct

Play back 14 Oct 2026

How it evolved, day by day

5 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 11 Oct 14 Oct

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

43km/h · peak gust

20%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,540 ha in 2017, 1,725 ha in 2018, 45 ha in 2019, 1,803 ha in 2021, 356 ha in 2022, 424 ha in 2024, 297 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,852 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

It burned the equivalent of 2.8% of the area of London (45 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

Mecula where it started

3,190 ha reached on 5 Oct

0.2 %
Mavago

1,335 ha reached on 8 Oct

0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025

Built-up area< 0.1 ha

Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives

Day	High	Min. humidity	Peak gust	Rain	Danger (FWI)
3 Oct	32.2 °C	31 %	35 km/h	1.8 mm	Moderate 14
4 Oct	31.5 °C	46 %	31 km/h	2.3 mm	Low 8
5 Oct	33.0 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.3 mm	High 25
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 34
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 40
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 41
16 Oct after	34.2 °C	22 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
17 Oct after	34.2 °C	23 %	41 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 46
18 Oct after	32.9 °C	31 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
19 Oct after	34.8 °C	28 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
20 Oct after	36.5 °C	25 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
21 Oct after	37.8 °C	25 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
22 Oct after	38.7 °C	19 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
23 Oct after	38.9 °C	16 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
24 Oct after	37.0 °C	20 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
25 Oct after	35.9 °C	27 %	38 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 26 Sept 2026

After · 22 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 guideline4 days

PM1054 µg/m³

Optical depth0.67

WHO 15

4567891011121314151617

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 · 71Every 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 3 October 2026 to 15 October 2026 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 October 2026 to 12 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,499 hectares (45.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mecula (3,190 ha, 0.2 %); Mavago (1,335 ha, 0.1 %).
Is the Mecula fire still active?: No fire detections since 14 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 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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 ↗

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

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How we know this

Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 6 October 2026 to 12 October 2026. 71 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
We have not matched this page with any official record.
Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.
Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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