Mocuba fire, 21 September 2022 Mocuba, Lugela, Milange
The fire started on 21 September 2022 in Mocuba, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 44 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,862 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 45th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 839 with a page). Number 6 in Mozambique in 2022, of 206.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Mocuba · 2020Mocuba · 2018Lugela · 2019Mocuba · 2017
- Burnt area
- 32,862ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 44days
- 21 Sept 2022 – 3 Nov 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 21 Sept
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 3,734
- in a single hotspot: 193 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 935MW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 4 Nov.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,712 ha in 2016, 10,513 ha in 2017, 10,622 ha in 2018, 11,528 ha in 2019, 19,737 ha in 2020, 19,407 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 29,335 ha that had burned before.
- 9,203 ha Mocuba fire, September 2020 86,463 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,563 ha Mocuba fire, September 2018 116,289 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,556 ha Lugela fire, September 2019 37,409 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,360 ha Mocuba fire, September 2017 44,276 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,248 ha Milange fire, September 2020 41,830 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,569 ha Milange fire, September 2016 99,267 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,045 ha Mocuba fire, September 2021 6,296 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,274 ha Mocuba fire, September 2021 4,532 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
-
Mocuba where it started21,320 ha reached on 21 Sept2.4 %
-
11,362 ha reached on 21 Sept1.8 %
-
345 ha reached on 17 Oct0.1 %
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 3.8 hectares of built-up land and about 850 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Sept | 33.2 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Sept | 33.5 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 23 Sept | 34.2 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 24 Sept | 32.9 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 25 Sept | 32.6 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 26 Sept | 34.2 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Sept | 34.9 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Sept | 31.3 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 29 Sept | 31.2 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Sept | 33.2 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Oct | 33.8 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Oct | 34.2 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 3 Oct | 34.0 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 Oct | 36.8 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 5 Oct | 36.3 °C | 19 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Oct | 35.8 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Oct | 36.0 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Oct | 33.7 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Oct | 34.2 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Oct | 34.7 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 11 Oct | 33.3 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Oct | 33.0 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 13 Oct | 34.6 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Oct | 36.3 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 15 Oct | 36.2 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 16 Oct | 34.8 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Oct | 34.6 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Oct | 33.4 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Oct | 32.5 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Oct | 33.5 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 25 |
| 21 Oct | 36.1 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Oct | 36.7 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Oct | 36.7 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 24 Oct | 37.2 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Oct | 36.5 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 26 Oct | 38.1 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Oct | 38.4 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 28 Oct | 38.3 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Oct | 32.5 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 30 Oct | 31.7 °C | 47 % | 28 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 31 Oct | 37.1 °C | 28 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 1 Nov | 35.3 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Nov | 33.6 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 1.7 mm | High 23 |
| 3 Nov | 33.0 °C | 45 % | 30 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 25 |
| 4 Nov after | 34.5 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 1.7 mm | Moderate 20 |
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 228 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 80: 5.3 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 · 3,734Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 116,289 haMocuba2 September 2018 · 35 days · 4 km away
- 505,288 haMocuba16 August 2026 · 45 days · 22 km away
- 86,463 haMocuba8 September 2020 · 34 days · 29 km away
- 94,650 haLugela 5 October 2026 · 24 days · 31 km away
- 44,276 haMocubaSeptember 2017 · 37 days · 33 km away
- 41,830 haMilange9 September 2020 · 33 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mocuba fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 September 2022 to 3 November 2022 (44 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 September 2022 to 30 October 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 32,862 hectares (328.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mocuba (21,320 ha, 2.4 %); Lugela (11,362 ha, 1.8 %); Milange (345 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 41 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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 30 October 2022 → 3 November 2022.
- Start date: 28 September 2022 → 21 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 28 September 2022 to 30 October 2022. 3,734 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.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.