Morondava fire, July 2026 Morondava, Mahabo, Belo Sur Tsiribihina
The fire started on 3 July 2026 in Morondava, Madagascar, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,153 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 34th largest in Menabe since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 30 in Madagascar in 2026, of 91.
- Burnt area
- 3,153ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 3 Jul 2026 – 13 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 3 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 82
- in a single hotspot: 0 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 905MW
- 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 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,294 ha in 2017, 2,933 ha in 2018, 1,718 ha in 2019, 1,998 ha in 2020, 2,343 ha in 2021, 1,854 ha in 2023, 1,851 ha in 2024, 1,415 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,018 ha that had burned before.
- 2,933 ha Morondava fire, October 2018 5,771 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,601 ha Mahabo fire, September 2020 6,536 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,379 ha Morondava fire, October 2019 2,408 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,192 ha Morondava fire, October 2021 2,024 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,017 ha Mahabo fire, June 2021 2,489 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 462 ha Morondava fire, July 2024 2,617 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 215 ha Mahabo fire, October 2017 2,123 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 139 ha Morondava fire, June 2023 2,165 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Morondava where it started2,816 ha0.5 %
-
240 ha0.0 %
-
104 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Jul | 31.4 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 4 Jul | 30.9 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Jul | 31.4 °C | 24 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Jul | 33.7 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 7 Jul | 32.8 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Jul | 31.1 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Jul | 30.4 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Jul | 31.5 °C | 22 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Jul | 30.7 °C | 26 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 12 Jul | 29.9 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 13 Jul | 29.7 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Jul after | 30.2 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 15 Jul after | 29.0 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 16 Jul after | 28.2 °C | 44 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 17 Jul after | 30.1 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Jul after | 29.9 °C | 29 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Jul after | 30.2 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Jul after | 29.8 °C | 37 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 21 Jul after | 30.3 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 22 Jul after | 31.4 °C | 25 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Jul after | 32.4 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
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 10 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.4 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 · 0Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,536 haMahabo22 September 2020 · 40 days · 5 km away
- 5,771 haMorondava17 October 2018 · 15 days · 5 km away
- 10,941 haMahabo8 October 2016 · 27 days · 13 km away
- 7,808 haMorondavaAugust 2026 · 11 days · 18 km away
- 6,286 haBelo Sur Tsiribihina4 October 2017 · 20 days · 18 km away
- 5,499 haBelo Sur Tsiribihina5 August 2021 · 21 days · 21 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Morondava fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 July 2026 and 13 July 2026: 11 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,153 hectares (31.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Morondava (2,816 ha, 0.5 %); Mahabo (240 ha, 0.0 %); Belo Sur Tsiribihina (104 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Madagascar (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.