Burned area
satellite only5,749ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 6 Oct 2023 – 16 Oct 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
MZ · Mozambique · –
Mocuba fire, 6 October 2023 Milange, Lugela, Mocuba
Out · last detection 16 Oct 2023, 10:59 UTC
The fire started on 6 October 2023 in Mocuba, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,749 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 198th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 562 with a page). Number 42 in Mozambique in 2023, of 128.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only11days
6 Oct 2023 to 16 Oct 2023: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 16 Oct 2023, 10:59 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only6 Oct 2023
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 6 Oct 2023
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only284
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 75 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 6 Oct 2023 – 16 Oct 2023
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only643MW
Total radiative power on 8 October 2023; hotspots that day: 49.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 8 Oct 2023
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model36.7FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 2.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 6 Oct 2023, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model40.8°C · 16% RH
High of 40.8 °C and minimum humidity of 16% on 14 October 2023; gusts of 46 km/h on 14 October 2023.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 6 Oct 2023 – 16 Oct 2023
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logStart date: 8 October 2023 → 6 October 2023.
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 5,749 ha
- Dates
- 6 Oct 2023 – 16 Oct 2023
- Name
- Milange
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/mocuba-2023-10?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire mocuba-2023-10.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-10-06 | 1 | 7 | 36.1 | 20.8 | 23 | 15.1 | 30.6 | 0 | 36.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-10-07 | 14 | 113 | 37.5 | 23.2 | 22 | 13 | 35.3 | 0 | 40.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-10-08 | 49 | 643 | 38.9 | 21.1 | 21 | 14.9 | 38.5 | 0 | 40.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-10-09 | 36 | 526 | 34.6 | 23 | 33 | 17.3 | 36 | 0 | 39.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-10-10 | 28 | 169 | 35.2 | 21.5 | 28 | 15.2 | 34.9 | 0 | 39.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-10-11 | 27 | 197 | 35.8 | 21.7 | 25 | 14.8 | 32.8 | 0 | 43.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-10-12 | 36 | 353 | 37.8 | 22.4 | 24 | 12.2 | 31.3 | 0 | 40.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2023-10-13 | 39 | 395 | 40.7 | 21.5 | 16 | 14.8 | 39.2 | 0 | 50.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-14 | 26 | 151 | 40.8 | 26.1 | 16 | 18.4 | 45.7 | 0 | 52.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2023-10-15 | 15 | 266 | 34.9 | 24.3 | 37 | 18.8 | 41 | 0.1 | 30.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-10-16 | 13 | 163 | 36.5 | 23.5 | 36 | 16.1 | 37.1 | 0 | 36.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2023-10-17 | 0 | 0 | 33.8 | 21.3 | 41 | 16.3 | 40.7 | 10.7 | 38.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 5,749ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 6 Oct 2023 – 16 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 284
- in a single hotspot: 75 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 271MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
6 Oct16 Oct
16 Oct 2023
How it evolved, day by day
8 Oct
12 Oct
15 Oct
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
41°high
46km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 10.7 mm on 17 Oct.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,655 ha in 2016, 4,450 ha in 2017, 4,338 ha in 2018, 4,014 ha in 2019, 3,159 ha in 2020, 644 ha in 2021, 2,437 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,670 ha that had burned before.
- 4,450 ha Mocuba fire, September 2017 44,276 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,010 ha Milange fire, September 2016 97,453 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,995 ha Mocuba fire, September 2019 35,850 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,088 ha Mocuba fire, September 2020 41,024 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,591 ha Derre fire, September 2018 115,943 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 809 ha Milange fire, September 2018 21,405 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 111 ha Mocuba fire, September 2022 32,678 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
-
2,917 ha0.5 %
-
2,534 ha0.4 %
-
Mocuba where it started334 ha0.0 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Oct | 36.1 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Oct | 37.5 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Oct | 38.9 °C | 21 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Oct | 34.6 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 10 Oct | 35.2 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 11 Oct | 35.8 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 12 Oct | 37.8 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 13 Oct | 40.7 °C | 16 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 14 Oct | 40.8 °C | 16 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 15 Oct | 34.9 °C | 37 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Oct | 36.5 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Oct after | 33.8 °C | 41 % | 41 km/h | 10.7 mm | Very high 38 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 36.7, a minimum humidity of 23% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 25.
FWI at the start
36.7
Minimum humidity
23 %
Days without rain
2
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Mocuba fire, 6 October 2023
5,749 ha
11 days
FWI 36.7
Min. humidity 23 %
Mocuba fire, September 2021
5,806 ha
5 days
FWI 36.9
Min. humidity 21 %
39 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.8 mm on 10 Sept.
Mocuba fire, September 2021
7,946 ha
26 days
FWI 38.4
Min. humidity 22 %
44 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.0 mm on 11 Oct.
Derre fire, September 2018
3,098 ha
15 days
FWI 36.0
Min. humidity 25 %
55 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mocuba fire, August 2021
4,333 ha
17 days
FWI 35.1
Min. humidity 23 %
133 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.6 mm on 11 Sept.
Mocuba fire, September 2022
3,071 ha
15 days
FWI 37.0
Min. humidity 25 %
110 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 15 days
- median duration
- 5,261 ha
- median area
- 16 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 3.6 mm
- rain at the end (median; 20 of 25 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (5,749 ha against a median of 5,261 ha) and lasted 11 days, against 15 days.
In 5 of 25, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.6 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
10.7 mmfirst rain
17 Octthe day after it ended
46km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 16 Oct, and on 17 Oct 10.7 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 20 of 25, with a median of 3.6 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 29 Sept 2023
After · 23 Oct 2023
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 9 October 2023 the air beside the fire reached 101 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 45: 3.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak101 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10143 µg/m³
Optical depth1.41
WHO 15
6 Oct9 Oct12 Oct15 Oct18 Oct
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 · 284Every 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
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mocuba fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 6 October 2023 to 16 October 2023 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 8 October 2023 to 16 October 2023.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,749 hectares (57.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Milange (2,917 ha, 0.5 %); Lugela (2,534 ha, 0.4 %); Mocuba (334 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
- 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 25. Their median duration was 15 days and their median area 5,261 ha; 16 % went past 10,000 ha. In 5 of 25, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.6 mm.
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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Start date: 8 October 2023 → 6 October 2023.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 8 October 2023 to 16 October 2023. 284 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.
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.