Nicoadala fire, September 2024 Nicoadala, Mocuba
The fire started on 13 September 2024 in Nicoadala, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,199 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 159th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 18 in Mozambique in 2024, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 10,199ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 13 Sept 2024 – 21 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 476
- in a single hotspot: 82 MW
- Danger at start
- 17
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.9GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.4 mm on 22 Sept.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,302 ha in 2016, 1,092 ha in 2017, 4,008 ha in 2018, 467 ha in 2019, 1,593 ha in 2020, 5,321 ha in 2021, 2,422 ha in 2022, 7,044 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,611 ha that had burned before.
- 6,951 ha Nicoadala fire, September 2023 17,548 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,591 ha Nicoadala fire, September 2016 3,982 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,088 ha Nicoadala fire, September 2018 3,860 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,999 ha Nicoadala fire, September 2021 4,309 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 891 ha Nicoadala fire, September 2016 3,575 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 767 ha Nicoadala fire, October 2017 3,029 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 330 ha Namacurra fire, September 2018 3,849 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Nicoadala where it started9,461 ha reached on 8 Sept3.4 %
-
789 ha reached on 9 Sept0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Sept | 32.5 °C | 46 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 9 Sept | 35.3 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 10 Sept | 30.3 °C | 50 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 11 Sept | 29.9 °C | 52 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 12 Sept | 31.0 °C | 47 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 13 Sept | 32.8 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 14 Sept | 34.0 °C | 34 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 15 Sept | 37.1 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Sept | 36.4 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Sept | 35.0 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Sept | 35.2 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Sept | 36.8 °C | 20 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 Sept | 37.0 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Sept | 32.3 °C | 53 % | 33 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 24 |
| 22 Sept after | 26.4 °C | 72 % | 31 km/h | 11.4 mm | Very low 0 |
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 18 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 87 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 2.9 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 · 476Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 129,061 haMocuba28 August 2026 · 27 days · 12 km away
- 62,871 haNamacurra3 September 2025 · 44 days · 18 km away
- 20,265 haMocuba1 September 2021 · 9 days · 20 km away
- 23,063 haMocuba3 September 2018 · 19 days · 26 km away
- 35,252 haNicoadala11 September 2026 · 19 days · 30 km away
- 73,182 haMocuba10 September 2024 · 12 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nicoadala fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2024 and 21 September 2024: 9 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 10,199 hectares (102.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nicoadala (9,461 ha, 3.4 %); Mocuba (789 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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
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.