Milange fire, 28 September 2022 Milange, Lugela
The fire started on 28 September 2022 in Milange, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,080 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 63th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 841 with a page). Number 11 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 25,080ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 36days
- 28 Sept 2022 – 2 Nov 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Sept
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 1,567
- in a single hotspot: 125 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 420MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19,282 ha in 2016, 15,324 ha in 2017, 13,425 ha in 2018, 15,859 ha in 2019, 13,397 ha in 2020, 8,773 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 24,630 ha that had burned before.
- 17,375 ha Milange fire, September 2016 99,267 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,592 ha Mocuba fire, September 2017 44,276 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10,272 ha Lugela fire, September 2019 37,409 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,879 ha Milange fire, September 2018 21,540 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,633 ha Milange fire, September 2020 41,830 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,539 ha Milange fire, September 2021 7,529 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,415 ha Milange fire, September 2020 13,179 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,917 ha Milange fire, September 2021 6,868 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Milange where it started21,837 ha reached on 28 Sept3.9 %
-
3,400 ha reached on 4 Oct0.6 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Sept | 30.9 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Sept | 30.6 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Sept | 32.3 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 1 Oct | 32.9 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 2 Oct | 33.4 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 3 Oct | 33.9 °C | 28 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Oct | 35.7 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 5 Oct | 35.4 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Oct | 35.1 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Oct | 35.3 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Oct | 33.2 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Oct | 33.5 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 10 Oct | 33.8 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Oct | 32.5 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 12 Oct | 32.7 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Oct | 34.0 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Oct | 35.0 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 15 Oct | 34.3 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 16 Oct | 33.6 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Oct | 33.5 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Oct | 32.5 °C | 31 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Oct | 31.2 °C | 40 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Oct | 32.2 °C | 35 % | 29 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Oct | 34.6 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Oct | 35.5 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Oct | 35.2 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Oct | 36.1 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Oct | 34.9 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 26 Oct | 36.6 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Oct | 36.7 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Oct | 36.9 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 29 Oct | 31.1 °C | 47 % | 32 km/h | 4.9 mm | Low 7 |
| 30 Oct | 30.5 °C | 44 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 31 Oct | 35.5 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Nov | 33.5 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 2 Nov | 32.3 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 27 |
| 3 Nov after | 31.7 °C | 43 % | 25 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Nov after | 33.2 °C | 37 % | 33 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Nov after | 33.8 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Nov after | 34.2 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 28 |
| 7 Nov after | 34.3 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 8 Nov after | 35.7 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 33 |
| 9 Nov after | 34.1 °C | 36 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Nov after | 33.9 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Nov after | 33.2 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 12 Nov after | 33.4 °C | 34 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
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 6 October 2022 the air beside the fire reached 144 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 66: 4.4 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 · 1,567Every 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 Milange fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 September 2022 to 2 November 2022 (36 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 October 2022 to 2 November 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 25,080 hectares (250.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Milange (21,837 ha, 3.9 %); Lugela (3,400 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Start date: 4 October 2022 → 28 September 2022.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 4 October 2022 to 2 November 2022. 1,567 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.