Fire near Tete (MZ)

16.51°S, 32.58°E · first detected on 8 October at 12:36

What the satellites measured

This fire was tracked from 8 October at 12:36 to 18 October at 01:12, that is 10 days, through 73 satellite detections. The detected extent reaches 1,135 ha.

Detected extent: 1,135 ha
Cumulative power: 467 MW
Peak power, one pixel: 29 MW
VIIRS and MODIS detections: 73
Estimated emissions: 3.2 kt of carbon; Carbon burnt in the 0.1 degree cells (about 10 km) around the fire, from 8 October 2026 to 17 October 2026. An order-of-magnitude estimate from GFAS (ECMWF, Copernicus CAMS): it also counts neighbouring fires in the same cell. Contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information (2026).

These four figures cover the polar orbits alone, the ones that measure an area. The pass table below also counts geostationary detections, more frequent but too coarse for geometry, and its power column sums a whole pass where the peak above is that of a single pixel.

“Detected extent” is not “burned area”: it is the union of the ground footprints of the satellite pixels, and a pixel counts in full (375 m for VIIRS, 1 km for MODIS) even when only a forest edge is burning. Compared with press figures it is in practice one and a half to three times the area reported. Detections taken at the edge of the scan swath, too coarse to measure anything at all, are excluded. These figures come from thermal detection and are not an official assessment: only the emergency services and the competent authorities are authoritative.

Replay how the fire spread

The map is framed on this fire's footprint and loads only its detections. The timeline below covers the period in which satellites saw it, from the first to the last detection, with twelve hours before and twenty-four after; the ticks on the bar mark the emergency services' announcements that fall within it. The cursor opens on the most powerful pass, and playback replays the whole fire in about thirty seconds. “1 h” shows what is burning within an hour of the chosen moment : the map then follows the power curve below and empties when it falls. “24 h” stacks twenty-four hours : a fire stays visible between two satellite passes, which come two to four times a day. Both are true, but they say different things.

How the radiative power evolved

One point per satellite pass: the sum of the fire radiative power measured over the fire. This is the curve that says whether the fire eased off or picked up again, which no cumulative figure shows. The window covers 12 days; beyond that, clustering would merge two successive fires in the same place.

Fire dynamics

Loading history…

Satellite passes in detail

Pass	Power summed over the pass	Detections	Sensor
19 October at 00:54	14 MW	10	N20
19 October at 00:33	13 MW	9	N
18 October at 15:25	717 MW	22	Aqua
18 October at 13:45	894 MW	75	N20
18 October at 13:23	1,034 MW	74	N
18 October at 12:47	1,347 MW	85	N21
18 October at 01:56	6 MW	3	N21
18 October at 01:12	18 MW	16	N20
18 October at 00:52	20 MW	12	N
18 October at 00:16	12 MW	6	N21
17 October at 14:04	527 MW	39	N20
17 October at 13:45	471 MW	47	N
17 October at 13:06	224 MW	14	N21
17 October at 01:31	13 MW	14	N20
17 October at 01:12	25 MW	28	N
17 October at 00:33	27 MW	17	N21
16 October at 15:44	15 MW	2	Aqua
16 October at 14:21	188 MW	17	N20
16 October at 14:02	566 MW	35	N
16 October at 13:25	646 MW	44	N21
16 October at 12:43	1,049 MW	58	N20
16 October at 08:05	9 MW	1	Terra
16 October at 01:50	8 MW	8	N20
16 October at 01:29	18 MW	12	N
16 October at 00:54	24 MW	19	N21
15 October at 15:06	57 MW	1	Aqua
15 October at 14:20	579 MW	41	N
15 October at 13:45	503 MW	47	N21
15 October at 13:00	394 MW	25	N20
15 October at 12:41	322 MW	19	N
15 October at 01:50	7 MW	6	N
15 October at 01:12	7 MW	6	N21
15 October at 00:27	10 MW	9	N20
14 October at 14:02	372 MW	36	N21
14 October at 13:19	418 MW	31	N20
14 October at 13:00	146 MW	29	N
14 October at 02:07	8 MW	6	N
14 October at 01:31	25 MW	13	N21
14 October at 00:48	25 MW	17	N20
14 October at 00:29	13 MW	8	N
13 October at 15:29	261 MW	13	Aqua
13 October at 14:21	170 MW	11	N21
13 October at 13:38	1,956 MW	71	N20
12 October at 13:00	1,458 MW	69	N21
12 October at 01:26	1 MW	1	N20
12 October at 01:05	2 MW	3	N
12 October at 00:29	8 MW	5	N21
11 October at 15:53	130 MW	11	Aqua
11 October at 14:17	327 MW	44	N20
11 October at 13:55	621 MW	45	N
11 October at 13:19	379 MW	19	N21
11 October at 12:34	237 MW	28	N20
11 October at 08:08	7 MW	1	Terra
11 October at 01:44	1 MW	2	N20
11 October at 01:24	1 MW	2	N
11 October at 00:48	2 MW	2	N21
10 October at 14:14	548 MW	66	N
10 October at 13:38	803 MW	62	N21
10 October at 12:53	695 MW	86	N20
10 October at 02:01	1 MW	1	N20
10 October at 01:05	3 MW	1	N21
10 October at 00:22	6 MW	3	N20
9 October at 13:55	314 MW	17	N21
9 October at 13:10	285 MW	19	N20
9 October at 12:51	308 MW	33	N
9 October at 01:26	2 MW	2	N21
9 October at 00:40	2 MW	2	N20
8 October at 15:38	90 MW	5	Aqua
8 October at 14:17	501 MW	27	N21
8 October at 13:32	1,067 MW	88	N20
8 October at 13:13	1,162 MW	91	N
8 October at 12:34	747 MW	44	N21
8 October at 01:01	0 MW	1	N20
8 October at 00:40	0 MW	1	N
7 October at 13:49	300 MW	44	N20
7 October at 13:30	283 MW	55	N
7 October at 12:53	316 MW	40	N21

8 other fires near Tete (MZ)

Separate fires, apart in time or in space, not pieces of this one. A single municipality can have several over one summer, and a forest massif often covers more than a hundred square kilometres.

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