Murrupula fire, August 2026 Murrupula, Ribaué
The fire started on 30 August 2026 in Murrupula, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,028 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 42th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 81 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.
- Burnt area
- 11,028ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 29days
- 30 Aug 2026 – 27 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 30 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 359
- in a single hotspot: 51 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 120MW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.7 mm on 30 Sept.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,472 ha in 2016, 1,378 ha in 2017, 4,153 ha in 2018, 985 ha in 2019, 2,516 ha in 2020, 2,743 ha in 2021, 3,153 ha in 2022, 1,612 ha in 2024, 2,335 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,612 ha that had burned before.
- 1,281 ha Murrupula fire, September 2018 3,763 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,245 ha Murrupula fire, October 2021 7,414 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 750 ha Murrupula fire, September 2016 5,469 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 331 ha Murrupula fire, September 2025 15,282 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 250 ha Murrupula fire, August 2020 3,363 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 217 ha Ribaué fire, September 2018 11,628 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 216 ha Murrupula fire, August 2020 6,400 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Murrupula where it started9,532 ha reached on 30 Aug3.1 %
-
1,550 ha reached on 31 Aug0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Aug | 28.6 °C | 36 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Aug | 30.4 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 1 Sept | 30.3 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 2 Sept | 29.7 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 3 Sept | 27.8 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 4 Sept | 31.2 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Sept | 30.5 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Sept | 31.0 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Sept | 29.6 °C | 32 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 Sept | 23.5 °C | 53 % | 45 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 9 Sept | 25.5 °C | 50 % | 36 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 10 Sept | 28.1 °C | 53 % | 35 km/h | 1.7 mm | Low 9 |
| 11 Sept | 30.1 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 12 Sept | 30.7 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Sept | 30.0 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Sept | 30.0 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 15 Sept | 31.9 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Sept | 27.9 °C | 44 % | 51 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Sept | 30.2 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 29 |
| 18 Sept | 31.8 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Sept | 30.0 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Sept | 30.4 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 Sept | 31.2 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 22 Sept | 29.4 °C | 44 % | 21 km/h | 4.8 mm | Low 6 |
| 23 Sept | 29.0 °C | 38 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 24 Sept | 29.6 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 25 Sept | 29.4 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 26 Sept | 29.9 °C | 40 % | 23 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 27 Sept | 32.2 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 28 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Sept after | 31.5 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 53 % | 35 km/h | 2.7 mm | Low 8 |
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 3 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 127 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 50: 3.3 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 · 359Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Murrupula fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 August 2026 to 27 September 2026 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 August 2026 to 20 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 11,028 hectares (110.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Murrupula (9,532 ha, 3.1 %); Ribaué (1,550 ha, 0.2 %).
- Is the Murrupula fire still active?
- No fire detections since 27 Sept 2026, 11:17 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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
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.