Moatize fire, 5 September 2026 Moatize, Tsangano
The fire started on 5 September 2026 in Moatize, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 25 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 67,089 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Tete since 2016 (of 115 with a page). Number 14 in Mozambique in 2026, of 525.
- Burnt area
- 67,089ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 25days
- 5 Sept 2026 – 29 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 2,508
- in a single hotspot: 169 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 23.8GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 14.1 mm on 30 Sept.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 31,035 ha in 2016, 26,303 ha in 2017, 18,413 ha in 2018, 12,547 ha in 2019, 25,118 ha in 2020, 19,725 ha in 2021, 27,352 ha in 2022, 15,063 ha in 2023, 14,027 ha in 2024, 27,687 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 61,765 ha that had burned before.
- 7,876 ha Moatize fire, September 2016 17,344 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,127 ha Moatize fire, September 2018 9,645 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,033 ha Moatize fire, September 2016 12,910 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,236 ha Tsangano fire, October 2022 12,983 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,085 ha Moatize fire, October 2022 5,587 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,066 ha Moatize fire, September 2021 7,882 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,350 ha Moatize fire, September 2016 5,314 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,012 ha Moatize fire, September 2019 4,917 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Moatize where it started49,918 ha reached on 5 Sept5.9 %
-
17,302 ha reached on 5 Sept4.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Sept | 31.1 °C | 40 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Sept | 32.1 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Sept | 32.3 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 15 Sept | 32.9 °C | 26 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Sept | 33.9 °C | 19 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Sept | 34.4 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Sept | 31.4 °C | 34 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Sept | 30.0 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Sept | 31.0 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Sept | 30.6 °C | 41 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 22 Sept | 27.7 °C | 54 % | 30 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 23 Sept | 30.3 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 24 Sept | 31.5 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 25 Sept | 29.9 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Sept | 33.0 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 27 Sept | 35.1 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Sept | 37.8 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 29 Sept | 32.9 °C | 45 % | 43 km/h | 6.6 mm | Low 9 |
| 30 Sept after | 23.6 °C | 73 % | 43 km/h | 14.1 mm | Very low 0 |
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 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 80 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.4 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 · 2,508Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,645 haMoatizeSeptember 2018 · 10 days · 19 km away
- 12,910 haMoatize15 September 2016 · 15 days · 22 km away
- 17,344 haMoatize5 September 2016 · 7 days · 33 km away
- 9,003 haChikwawaSeptember 2018 · 14 days · 34 km away
- 13,226 haChikwawa4 October 2016 · 10 days · 37 km away
- 8,324 haMoatize9 September 2017 · 10 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Moatize fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 September 2026 to 29 September 2026 (25 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 September 2026 to 29 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 67,089 hectares (670.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Moatize (49,918 ha, 5.9 %); Tsangano (17,302 ha, 4.7 %).
- Is the Moatize fire still active?
- No fire detections since 29 Sept 2026, 12:21 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.