Moatize fire, 23 September 2025 Moatize
The fire started on 23 September 2025 in Moatize, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,827 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 45th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 114 with a page). Number 138 in Mozambique in 2025, of 313.
The power measured by the satellite is low (29.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 4,827ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 23 Sept 2025 – 29 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Sept
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 104
- in a single hotspot: 29 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 590MW
- 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 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 30 Sept.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,380 ha in 2016, 526 ha in 2017, 418 ha in 2018, 945 ha in 2019, 3,223 ha in 2020, 362 ha in 2021, 2,490 ha in 2022, 1,428 ha in 2023, 1,336 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,115 ha that had burned before.
- 2,737 ha Moatize fire, September 2020 5,037 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,490 ha Moatize fire, October 2022 4,995 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,380 ha Moatize fire, September 2016 6,906 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 362 ha Moatize fire, September 2021 4,434 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10 ha Moatize fire, September 2017 3,045 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Moatize where it started4,848 ha reached on 16 Sept0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Sept | 35.0 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Sept | 34.7 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Sept | 33.5 °C | 30 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Sept | 29.5 °C | 43 % | 42 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Sept | 29.1 °C | 43 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Sept | 34.5 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 29 Sept | 36.4 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 45 |
| 30 Sept after | 28.5 °C | 58 % | 45 km/h | 3.9 mm | Low 9 |
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 30 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 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 · 104Every 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 Moatize fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 September 2025 and 29 September 2025: 7 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 4,827 hectares (48.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Moatize (4,848 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.