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Mocuba fire, 16 August 2026 Mocuba, Milange, Morrumbala

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

The fire started on 16 August 2026 in Mocuba, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 45 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 505,288 hectares from heat detections, spread across 5 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the largest fire in Zambézia since 2016 (of 840 with a page). The largest in Mozambique in 2026, of 540.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Mocuba · 2023Mocuba · 2022Mocuba · 2018

Burnt area
505,288ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
45days
16 Aug 2026 – 29 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
5
districts
Started on
16 Aug
2026
Heat detections
26,212
in a single hotspot: 327 MW
Danger at start
17
Moderate · FWI index
Average daily power
6.0GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug29 Sept
29 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

16 Aug 2026 · 184 MW · 28 17 Aug 2026 · 240 MW · 22 18 Aug 2026 · 76 MW · 6 19 Aug 2026 · 206 MW · 12 20 Aug 2026 · 132 MW · 19 21 Aug 2026 · 2,289 MW · 265 22 Aug 2026 · 4,841 MW · 345 23 Aug 2026 · 4,020 MW · 422 24 Aug 2026 · 1,488 MW · 103 25 Aug 2026 · 2,041 MW · 247 26 Aug 2026 · 1,773 MW · 272 27 Aug 2026 · 596 MW · 82 28 Aug 2026 · 732 MW · 85 29 Aug 2026 · 35 MW · 5 30 Aug 2026 · 4,480 MW · 526 31 Aug 2026 · 7,889 MW · 911 1 Sept 2026 · 9,745 MW · 831 2 Sept 2026 · 7,996 MW · 915 3 Sept 2026 · 13,713 MW · 1210 4 Sept 2026 · 15,533 MW · 1592 5 Sept 2026 · 6,949 MW · 871 6 Sept 2026 · 4,827 MW · 534 7 Sept 2026 · 2,019 MW · 184 10 Sept 2026 · 529 MW · 49 11 Sept 2026 · 3,424 MW · 422 12 Sept 2026 · 7,642 MW · 729 13 Sept 2026 · 15,096 MW · 1564 14 Sept 2026 · 10,357 MW · 1462 15 Sept 2026 · 30,398 MW · 2813 16 Sept 2026 · 36,242 MW · 3467 17 Sept 2026 · 19,641 MW · 1399 18 Sept 2026 · 8,415 MW · 1015 19 Sept 2026 · 3,108 MW · 366 20 Sept 2026 · 5,240 MW · 721 21 Sept 2026 · 1,900 MW · 311 22 Sept 2026 · 246 MW · 39 23 Sept 2026 · 2,875 MW · 272 24 Sept 2026 · 6,448 MW · 646 25 Sept 2026 · 3,964 MW · 372 26 Sept 2026 · 3,703 MW · 407 27 Sept 2026 · 3,463 MW · 352 28 Sept 2026 · 3,531 MW · 315 29 Sept 2026 · 25 MW · 4
16 Aug 23 Aug 30 Aug 6 Sept 15 Sept 16 Sept 22 Sept 29 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
53km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.0 mm on 30 Sept.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.2 times the area of London (5,053 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Mocuba where it started
    143,645 ha reached on 16 Aug
    16 %
  2. Milange
    139,642 ha reached on 16 Aug
    25 %
  3. Morrumbala
    89,603 ha reached on 16 Aug
    11 %
  4. Lugela
    69,313 ha reached on 17 Aug
    11 %
  5. Derre
    65,815 ha reached on 16 Aug
    14 %

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 2025
Built-up area731 ha
Residents≈ 185,000

Inside the perimeter there were about 731 hectares of built-up land and about 185,000 residents (GHSL 2025, 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. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

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)
19 Aug 28.1 °C 48 % 19 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 17
20 Aug 28.2 °C 50 % 22 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 17
21 Aug 30.6 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
22 Aug 31.9 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Aug 33.2 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug 28.4 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
25 Aug 28.8 °C 40 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
26 Aug 28.0 °C 46 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Aug 26.6 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
28 Aug 27.9 °C 48 % 28 km/h 2.1 mm Low 9
29 Aug 26.9 °C 54 % 24 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 12
30 Aug 32.9 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
31 Aug 33.8 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Sept 32.6 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Sept 32.8 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Sept 33.0 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Sept 35.1 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Sept 33.3 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Sept 31.9 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Sept 30.3 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
8 Sept 25.0 °C 53 % 44 km/h 2.7 mm Low 8
9 Sept 25.6 °C 58 % 28 km/h 2.6 mm Low 5
10 Sept 29.5 °C 51 % 20 km/h 0.5 mm Low 10
11 Sept 31.7 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
12 Sept 33.2 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Sept 32.4 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Sept 32.5 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Sept 35.3 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Sept 34.5 °C 23 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Sept 35.2 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Sept 34.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept 31.6 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Sept 31.3 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Sept 33.3 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept 30.8 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Sept 31.0 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Sept 31.9 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Sept 31.4 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Sept 33.9 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Sept 37.5 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Sept 38.3 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 42
29 Sept 34.7 °C 40 % 42 km/h 6.4 mm Low 11
30 Sept after 28.7 °C 55 % 40 km/h 6.0 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Aug 2026
After · 6 Oct 2026

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 1 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 142 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 69: 4.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak142 µg/m³
Days over the guideline33 days
PM10145 µg/m³
Optical depth1.42
14151617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012
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 · 26,212Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mocuba fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 August 2026 to 29 September 2026 (45 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 August 2026 to 29 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 505,288 hectares (5,052.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Mocuba (143,645 ha, 16 %); Milange (139,642 ha, 25 %); Morrumbala (89,603 ha, 11 %); Lugela (69,313 ha, 11 %); Derre (65,815 ha, 14 %).
Is the Mocuba 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 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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.

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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 11 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 August 2026 to 29 September 2026. 26,212 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 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.