Moba fire, September 2026 Moba
The fire started on 24 September 2026 in Moba, Congo - Kinshasa, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,755 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 16th largest in Tanganyika since 2016 (of 232 with a page). Number 118 in Congo - Kinshasa in 2026, of 523.
- Burnt area
- 13,755ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 24 Sept 2026 – 15 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- territories
- Started on
- 24 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 328
- in a single hotspot: 133 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.0GW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 16 Oct.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,878 ha in 2016, 1,754 ha in 2017, 7,838 ha in 2018, 1,252 ha in 2019, 6,916 ha in 2020, 1,350 ha in 2021, 6,960 ha in 2022, 5,193 ha in 2023, 5,635 ha in 2024, 6,063 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,603 ha that had burned before.
- 4,469 ha Moba fire, September 2018 6,432 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,370 ha Moba fire, September 2018 8,371 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,693 ha Moba fire, October 2020 8,734 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,243 ha Moba fire, September 2022 10,158 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Moba where it started13,840 ha reached on 24 Sept0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Sept | 25.3 °C | 37 % | 34 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 25 Sept | 25.5 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 23 |
| 26 Sept | 25.5 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Sept | 25.3 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 28 Sept | 26.4 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Sept | 26.7 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Sept | 26.2 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Oct | 25.6 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 2 Oct | 25.6 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 2.5 mm | Low 11 |
| 3 Oct | 25.2 °C | 37 % | 40 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 4 Oct | 25.5 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 1.6 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 5 Oct | 25.7 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 2.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 6 Oct | 26.9 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Oct | 27.1 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Oct | 25.2 °C | 42 % | 41 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Oct | 26.7 °C | 32 % | 46 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 29 |
| 10 Oct | 27.1 °C | 31 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Oct | 26.5 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 12 Oct | 26.6 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 13 Oct | 26.4 °C | 34 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Oct | 26.8 °C | 36 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 27 |
| 15 Oct | 26.9 °C | 36 % | 39 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Oct after | 25.3 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 10 |
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 2 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 198 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 122: 8.1 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 · 328Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,432 haMoba29 September 2018 · 7 days · 5 km away
- 8,371 haMoba15 September 2018 · 13 days · 11 km away
- 10,158 haMoba29 September 2022 · 10 days · 16 km away
- 8,734 haMoba1 October 2020 · 10 days · 18 km away
- 20,891 haMoba2 October 2020 · 7 days · 21 km away
- 6,595 haMobaSeptember 2025 · 9 days · 25 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Moba fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 September 2026 to 15 October 2026 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 October 2026 to 11 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,755 hectares (137.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Moba (13,840 ha, 0.5 %).
- Is the Moba fire still active?
- No fire detections since 14 Oct 2026, 11:21 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.1 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Congo - Kinshasa (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.