How long did the Moatize fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 September 2026 to 28 September 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 September 2026 to 28 September 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,966 hectares (79.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Moatize (8,012 ha, 0.9 %).

Is the Moatize fire still active?

No fire detections since 29 Sept 2026, 12:19 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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 · 2026-09-09 → 2026-09-28

Moatize fire, 9 September 2026 Moatize

Out · last detection 29 Sept 2026, 12:19 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2026 in Moatize, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,966 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 14th largest in Tete since 2016 (of 114 with a page). Number 109 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.

Burnt area: 7,966ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 20days; 9 Sept 2026 – 28 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 9 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 165; in a single hotspot: 148 MW
Danger at start: 12; Moderate · FWI index
Energy released: 2.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 29 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept28 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

912131415161718192021232425272829

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

The weather it burned in

39°high

44km/h · peak gust

18%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.8 mm on 29 Sept.

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1 ha in 2016, 88 ha in 2017, 65 ha in 2018, 542 ha in 2021, 1,390 ha in 2023, 511 ha in 2025.

What happened to each town

Moatize where it started

8,012 ha reached on 9 Sept

0.9 %

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 Sept	24.7 °C	53 %	42 km/h	1.6 mm	Moderate 12
10 Sept	29.1 °C	48 %	30 km/h	0.7 mm	Moderate 17
11 Sept	30.5 °C	44 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
12 Sept	32.2 °C	38 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
13 Sept	33.3 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
14 Sept	33.4 °C	27 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
15 Sept	34.0 °C	25 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
16 Sept	35.1 °C	18 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
17 Sept	35.9 °C	22 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
18 Sept	32.6 °C	32 %	40 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 42
19 Sept	31.2 °C	34 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
20 Sept	32.0 °C	34 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
21 Sept	31.7 °C	38 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
22 Sept	29.7 °C	46 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
23 Sept	31.5 °C	34 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
24 Sept	32.7 °C	31 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
25 Sept	31.0 °C	32 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
26 Sept	33.7 °C	33 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
27 Sept	36.5 °C	28 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
28 Sept	39.0 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 42
29 Sept after	34.1 °C	44 %	44 km/h	5.8 mm	Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 2 Sept 2026

After · 5 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 18 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 69 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak69 µg/m³

Days over the guideline18 days

PM1072 µg/m³

Optical depth1.62

WHO 15

7891011121314151617181920212223242526272829301

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 · 165Every 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 Moatize fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 9 September 2026 to 28 September 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 September 2026 to 28 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 7,966 hectares (79.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Moatize (8,012 ha, 0.9 %).
Is the Moatize fire still active?: No fire detections since 29 Sept 2026, 12:19 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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 ↗

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?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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