Burned area
satellite only3,132ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 7 Sept 2024 – 28 Sept 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
MZ · Mozambique · –
Muecate fire, 7 September 2024 Muecate, Mecubúri
Out · last detection 28 Sept 2024, 10:34 UTC
The fire started on 7 September 2024 in Muecate, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,132 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 250th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 269 with a page). Number 139 in Mozambique in 2024, of 150.
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 only22days
7 Sept 2024 to 28 Sept 2024: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 28 Sept 2024, 10:34 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 only7 Sept 2024
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 7 Sept 2024
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only160
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 42 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP + NOAA-20)
- Date
- 7 Sept 2024 – 28 Sept 2024
+− 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 only217MW
Total radiative power on 14 September 2024; hotspots that day: 18.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 14 Sept 2024
+− 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
model38.8FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 17.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 7 Sept 2024, 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
model32.8°C · 32% RH
High of 32.8 °C and minimum humidity of 32% on 14 September 2024; gusts of 51 km/h on 23 September 2024.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 7 Sept 2024 – 28 Sept 2024
- 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
-
logLast day with fire: 21 September 2024 → 28 September 2024.
-
logStart date: 12 September 2024 → 7 September 2024.
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
- 3,132 ha
- Dates
- 7 Sept 2024 – 28 Sept 2024
- Name
- Mecubúri
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/muecate-2024-09-2?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 muecate-2024-09-2.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-09-07 | 0 | 0 | 30.1 | 18.1 | 41 | 14.5 | 37.8 | 0.1 | 38.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-08 | 0 | 0 | 30.7 | 16.5 | 37 | 16.6 | 40 | 0 | 40.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-09 | 0 | 0 | 32.2 | 18 | 32 | 11.9 | 31.7 | 0 | 39.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-10 | 1 | 8 | 31.3 | 17.8 | 35 | 16.2 | 36.7 | 0 | 43.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-11 | 8 | 123 | 30.7 | 20 | 38 | 20.4 | 46.1 | 0 | 44.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-12 | 5 | 60 | 30.8 | 19.7 | 37 | 17.3 | 36.7 | 0 | 36.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-13 | 10 | 109 | 32.1 | 18.8 | 31 | 12.9 | 33.8 | 0 | 42.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-14 | 18 | 217 | 32.8 | 18.3 | 32 | 14.1 | 28.4 | 0 | 39 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-15 | 10 | 99 | 32.1 | 18.3 | 34 | 17.6 | 41 | 0 | 47 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-16 | 9 | 70 | 30.8 | 18.7 | 30 | 12.8 | 34.6 | 0 | 43.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-17 | 11 | 148 | 31 | 18.6 | 31 | 12.1 | 32.4 | 0 | 42.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-18 | 18 | 99 | 31.1 | 17.1 | 30 | 15.1 | 36 | 0 | 46 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-19 | 26 | 156 | 31.5 | 18.4 | 31 | 16.3 | 39.2 | 0 | 49.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-20 | 10 | 134 | 31.8 | 19.5 | 33 | 15.8 | 36.4 | 0 | 46 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-21 | 7 | 77 | 31.4 | 19.8 | 34 | 13.2 | 29.9 | 0 | 39.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-22 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 20.8 | 49 | 18.1 | 37.8 | 0.8 | 34.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-23 | 0 | 0 | 27.8 | 20 | 50 | 23.5 | 51.1 | 1.6 | 26.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-24 | 12 | 196 | 28.1 | 18.5 | 36 | 21.4 | 45.7 | 0 | 33.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-25 | 3 | 19 | 30.3 | 16.9 | 33 | 16.1 | 31.3 | 0 | 27 | alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-26 | 1 | 5 | 31.6 | 18.8 | 33 | 15.9 | 34.6 | 0 | 40.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-27 | 0 | 0 | 32.4 | 19.1 | 30 | 16.7 | 36.7 | 0 | 42 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-28 | 11 | 93 | 32.4 | 18.6 | 33 | 15.6 | 34.9 | 0 | 44.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2024-09-29 | 0 | 0 | 32.1 | 18.5 | 31 | 15.3 | 36.4 | 0 | 47.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2024-09-30 | 0 | 0 | 32.1 | 19 | 31 | 20.2 | 45.7 | 0 | 55.1 | extremo | 0 |
| 2024-10-01 | 0 | 0 | 31.9 | 21.1 | 40 | 18.6 | 40.7 | 0.2 | 43.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2024-10-02 | 0 | 0 | 31.8 | 21.3 | 40 | 17.7 | 36.4 | 1.1 | 39.9 | 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
- 3,132ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 22days
- 7 Sept 2024 – 28 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 160
- in a single hotspot: 42 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 101MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
7 Sept28 Sept
28 Sept 2024
How it evolved, day by day
10 Sept
14 Sept
18 Sept
24 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
33°high
51km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity
It had gone 17 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 2 Oct.
This area had burned before
41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 370 ha in 2016, 738 ha in 2018, 240 ha in 2019, 225 ha in 2020, 264 ha in 2021, 146 ha in 2022, 45 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,293 ha that had burned before.
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
-
Muecate where it started2,134 ha0.5 %
-
1,017 ha0.1 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Sept | 30.1 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 39 |
| 8 Sept | 30.7 °C | 37 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Sept | 32.2 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 Sept | 31.3 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Sept | 30.7 °C | 38 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Sept | 30.8 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 13 Sept | 32.1 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Sept | 32.8 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Sept | 32.1 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 16 Sept | 30.8 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 17 Sept | 31.0 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Sept | 31.1 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Sept | 31.5 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 20 Sept | 31.8 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 21 Sept | 31.4 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Sept | 29.0 °C | 49 % | 38 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Sept | 27.8 °C | 50 % | 51 km/h | 1.6 mm | High 26 |
| 24 Sept | 28.1 °C | 36 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 25 Sept | 30.3 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 26 Sept | 31.6 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Sept | 32.4 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 28 Sept | 32.4 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 30 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 31 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 1 Oct after | 31.9 °C | 40 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 43 |
| 2 Oct after | 31.8 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 1.1 mm | Very high 40 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 38.8, a minimum humidity of 41% and 17 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 15.
FWI at the start
38.8
Minimum humidity
41 %
Days without rain
17
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Muecate fire, 7 September 2024
3,132 ha
22 days
FWI 38.8
Min. humidity 41 %
Liúpo fire, September 2018
5,287 ha
5 days
FWI 36.1
Min. humidity 42 %
137 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 9.7 mm on 1 Oct.
Liúpo fire, October 2021
3,542 ha
8 days
FWI 38.2
Min. humidity 43 %
145 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 2.7 mm on 11 Oct.
Meconta fire, September 2017
3,515 ha
11 days
FWI 35.8
Min. humidity 41 %
102 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Balama fire, August 2017
4,200 ha
11 days
FWI 38.3
Min. humidity 39 %
155 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mogovolas fire, September 2020
5,865 ha
18 days
FWI 37.6
Min. humidity 38 %
130 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.8 mm on 12 Oct.
What happened to them
- 14 days
- median duration
- 3,854 ha
- median area
- 7 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 1.8 mm
- rain at the end (median; 7 of 15 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (3,132 ha against a median of 3,854 ha) and lasted 22 days, against 14 days.
In 8 of 15, 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 1.8 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
1.1 mmfirst rain
2 Oct4 days after it ended
51km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 28 Sept, and on 2 Oct 1.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 7 of 15, with a median of 1.8 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 · 31 Aug 2024
After · 5 Oct 2024
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 18 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak41 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1058 µg/m³
Optical depth0.63
WHO 15
10 Sept13 Sept16 Sept19 Sept22 Sept
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 · 160Every 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
- 6,758 haMecubúri1 October 2022 · 13 days · 9 km away
- 14,953 haMecubúri3 September 2025 · 28 days · 11 km away
- 4,830 haMecubúri9 September 2025 · 21 days · 13 km away
- 4,375 haMecubúriSeptember 2021 · 20 days · 15 km away
- 4,400 haMuecate8 September 2024 · 14 days · 16 km away
- 5,371 haMuecate5 October 2026 · 19 days · 17 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Muecate fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 September 2024 to 28 September 2024 (22 days). The perimeter dates it from 12 September 2024 to 21 September 2024.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,132 hectares (31.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Muecate (2,134 ha, 0.5 %); Mecubúri (1,017 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.
- 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: 15. Their median duration was 14 days and their median area 3,854 ha; 7 % went past 10,000 ha. In 8 of 15, 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 1.8 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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 21 September 2024 → 28 September 2024.
- Start date: 12 September 2024 → 7 September 2024.
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 12 September 2024 to 21 September 2024. 160 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.