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Ribaué fire, 18 August 2026 Ribaué

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2026, 11:00 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2026 in Ribaué, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 27 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,099 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 370th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 509 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Lalaua · 2026Ribaué · 2018Malema · 2025Lalaua · 2016

Burnt area
3,099ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
27days
18 Aug 2026 – 13 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Aug
2026
Heat detections
67
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Average daily power
35MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug13 Sept
12 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

18 Aug 2026 · 9 MW · 2 21 Aug 2026 · 94 MW · 8 23 Aug 2026 · 50 MW · 7 25 Aug 2026 · 13 MW · 3 27 Aug 2026 · 76 MW · 7 28 Aug 2026 · 15 MW · 2 31 Aug 2026 · 13 MW · 1 1 Sept 2026 · 136 MW · 15 2 Sept 2026 · 17 MW · 2 4 Sept 2026 · 59 MW · 12 5 Sept 2026 · 3 MW · 1 6 Sept 2026 · 6 MW · 2 7 Sept 2026 · 12 MW · 3 8 Sept 2026 · 2 MW · 1 12 Sept 2026 · 12 MW · 1
18 Aug 25 Aug 31 Aug 1 Sept 4 Sept 7 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

32°high
52km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.9 mm on 22 Sept.

This area had burned before

70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,090 ha in 2017, 750 ha in 2020, 800 ha in 2022, 707 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,182 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 2% of the area of London (31 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Ribaué where it started
    3,115 ha reached on 18 Aug
    0.5 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area10 ha
Residents≈ 1,200

Inside the perimeter there were about 10 hectares of built-up land and about 1,200 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
18 Aug 27.5 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Aug 28.3 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Aug 27.6 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
21 Aug 29.1 °C 45 % 40 km/h 0.7 mm High 22
22 Aug 31.3 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Aug 32.0 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug 28.2 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Aug 29.6 °C 34 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Aug 27.8 °C 40 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Aug 27.4 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Aug 26.1 °C 45 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Aug 26.3 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 20
30 Aug 28.5 °C 36 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Aug 30.3 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Sept 30.6 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Sept 30.4 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Sept 27.3 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Sept 30.2 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Sept 29.6 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Sept 31.3 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Sept 29.7 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Sept 23.9 °C 50 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
9 Sept 26.7 °C 43 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Sept 27.8 °C 46 % 42 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
11 Sept 30.7 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Sept 31.0 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept 30.6 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Sept after 30.2 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Sept after 32.0 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Sept after 28.0 °C 40 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
17 Sept after 30.2 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm High 32
18 Sept after 31.5 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Sept after 30.2 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Sept after 30.2 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Sept after 31.1 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Sept after 29.9 °C 42 % 25 km/h 4.9 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Aug 2026
After · 20 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 6 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 64 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak64 µg/m³
Days over the guideline13 days
PM1066 µg/m³
Optical depth1.32
1617181920212223242526272829303112345678910111213141516
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 · 67Every 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 Ribaué fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 18 August 2026 to 13 September 2026 (27 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 August 2026 to 6 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,099 hectares (31.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ribaué (3,115 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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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 24 August 2026 to 6 September 2026. 67 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.