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Nhamatanda fire, August 2026 Nhamatanda, Gondola

Out · last detection 6 Sept 2026, 11:10 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2026 in Nhamatanda, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,825 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 69th largest in Sofala since 2016 (of 214 with a page). Number 162 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.

Burnt area
5,825ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
30 Aug 2026 – 6 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
30 Aug
2026
Heat detections
76
in a single hotspot: 35 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
593MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug6 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3031123456

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
35km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 7 Sept.

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 620 ha in 2016, 1,274 ha in 2017, 1,508 ha in 2018, 2,447 ha in 2019, 1,149 ha in 2020, 779 ha in 2021, 156 ha in 2022, 1,773 ha in 2023, 1,824 ha in 2024, 1,993 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,029 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Nhamatanda where it started
    3,036 ha reached on 30 Aug
    0.8 %
  2. Gondola
    2,813 ha reached on 31 Aug
    1.0 %

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)
30 Aug 30.8 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
31 Aug 31.2 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
1 Sept 30.7 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
2 Sept 30.7 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
3 Sept 32.4 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
4 Sept 34.9 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Sept 29.7 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.6 mm High 30
6 Sept 29.9 °C 45 % 32 km/h 1.0 mm High 22
7 Sept after 28.3 °C 46 % 34 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 11

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Aug 2026
After · 13 Sept 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 4 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 78 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 51: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak78 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM1083 µg/m³
Optical depth1.24
28293031123456789
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 · 76Every 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 Nhamatanda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2026 and 6 September 2026: 8 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 5,825 hectares (58.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nhamatanda (3,036 ha, 0.8 %); Gondola (2,813 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 35 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.

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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.