Mecula fire, 9 October 2026 Mecula
The fire started on 9 October 2026 in Mecula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,945 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 26th largest in Niassa since 2016 (of 577 with a page). Number 47 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.
Is it still active?
Satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 22:59 UTC. Everything suggests it is still burning. 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
- 14,945ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 9 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 9 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 244
- in a single hotspot: 42 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.2GW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
33% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,948 ha in 2017, 2,496 ha in 2019, 245 ha in 2020, 1,697 ha in 2021, 1,524 ha in 2022, 542 ha in 2024, 2,028 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,988 ha that had burned before.
- 2,090 ha Mecula fire, October 2019 13,847 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,012 ha Mecula fire, September 2025 11,902 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,500 ha Mecula fire, October 2022 4,173 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 542 ha Mecula fire, September 2024 4,661 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 335 ha Mecula fire, September 2021 5,350 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mecula where it started15,056 ha reached on 9 Oct0.8 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 23 |
| 11 Oct | 34.8 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 12 Oct | 34.0 °C | 29 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 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 33 |
| 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 37 |
| 18 Oct | 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.
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 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 · 244Every 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?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2026 and 23 October 2026: 15 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,945 hectares (149.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mecula (15,056 ha, 0.8 %).
- Is the Mecula fire still active?
- Yes: satellites detected fire on 23 Oct 2026, 22:59 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
- 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 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.