Pebane fire, 7 October 2026 Pebane
The fire started on 7 October 2026 in Pebane, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,870 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 111th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 845 with a page). Number 51 in Mozambique in 2026, of 525.
Is it still active?
No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:49 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. 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.
- Burnt area
- 13,870ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 7 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 247
- in a single hotspot: 39 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.4GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
39% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 975 ha in 2016, 1,379 ha in 2017, 359 ha in 2018, 1,719 ha in 2019, 2,483 ha in 2020, 935 ha in 2021, 2,314 ha in 2022, 3,417 ha in 2023, 2,944 ha in 2024, 5,435 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,390 ha that had burned before.
- 3,417 ha Pebane fire, September 2023 10,775 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,446 ha Pebane fire, September 2025 26,957 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,200 ha Pebane fire, September 2024 3,466 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 738 ha Pebane fire, September 2020 8,133 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 443 ha Pebane fire, October 2022 6,455 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 378 ha Pebane fire, November 2021 3,487 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 52 ha Pebane fire, October 2025 51,620 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Pebane where it started13,952 ha reached on 7 Oct1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct | 36.5 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 8 Oct | 34.9 °C | 40 % | 42 km/h | 1.8 mm | Low 9 |
| 9 Oct | 32.4 °C | 49 % | 37 km/h | 0.9 mm | Low 8 |
| 10 Oct | 31.6 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 11 Oct | 31.1 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 12 Oct | 35.2 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 13 Oct | 34.0 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 14 Oct | 36.1 °C | 27 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 15 Oct | 35.4 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 16 Oct | 34.9 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 22 |
| 17 Oct | 35.6 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 18 Oct | 36.7 °C | 19 % | 45 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 9 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 25 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 1.1 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 · 247Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 21,787 haPebane5 October 2022 · 18 days · 16 km away
- 51,620 haPebane13 October 2025 · 26 days · 23 km away
- 18,797 haPebane30 October 2021 · 21 days · 24 km away
- 25,462 haPebane6 September 2024 · 16 days · 27 km away
- 17,782 haPebane30 August 2026 · 9 days · 30 km away
- 26,957 haPebane10 September 2025 · 17 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Pebane fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 October 2026 to 22 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 13,870 hectares (138.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pebane (13,952 ha, 1.4 %).
- Is the Pebane fire still active?
- No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:49 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, 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.