How long did the Derre fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 September 2017 and 10 October 2017: 19 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 14,637 hectares (146.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Derre (9,612 ha, 2.0 %); Mocuba (5,088 ha, 0.6 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.

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.

MZ · Mozambique · 2017-09-22 → 2017-10-10

Derre fire, 22 September 2017 Derre, Mocuba

Out · last detection 11 Oct 2017, 10:34 UTC

The fire started on 22 September 2017 in Derre, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,637 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 104th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 845 with a page). Number 10 in Mozambique in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area: 14,637ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 19days; 22 Sept 2017 – 10 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 22 Sept; 2017
Heat detections: 1,058; in a single hotspot: 146 MW
Danger at start: 36; High · FWI index
Energy released: 11.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 11 Oct 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Sept10 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526272829301234567891011

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

The weather it burned in

41°high

46km/h · peak gust

10%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 22 Oct.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,469 ha in 2016.

8,669 ha Derre fire, September 2016 116,560 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Derre where it started

9,612 ha reached on 15 Sept

2.0 %
Mocuba

5,088 ha reached on 16 Sept

0.6 %

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)
15 Sept	31.4 °C	24 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
16 Sept	32.3 °C	27 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
17 Sept	35.3 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
18 Sept	32.2 °C	33 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
19 Sept	30.1 °C	47 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
20 Sept	31.6 °C	41 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
21 Sept	28.7 °C	50 %	36 km/h	0.8 mm	Moderate 20
22 Sept	30.0 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
23 Sept	33.9 °C	24 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
24 Sept	28.7 °C	40 %	30 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31
25 Sept	30.4 °C	39 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
26 Sept	36.8 °C	21 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
27 Sept	36.9 °C	24 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
28 Sept	32.7 °C	36 %	46 km/h	0.4 mm	Very high 41
29 Sept	28.9 °C	50 %	40 km/h	0.7 mm	High 23
30 Sept	29.9 °C	42 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
1 Oct	29.7 °C	37 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
2 Oct	30.6 °C	41 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
3 Oct	32.5 °C	32 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
4 Oct	33.5 °C	34 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
5 Oct	36.8 °C	18 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
6 Oct	36.8 °C	22 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
7 Oct	36.2 °C	24 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
8 Oct	35.8 °C	23 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
9 Oct	37.0 °C	24 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
10 Oct	37.6 °C	26 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
11 Oct after	36.0 °C	32 %	44 km/h	0.7 mm	Very high 40
12 Oct after	28.5 °C	61 %	37 km/h	1.3 mm	Moderate 14
13 Oct after	31.0 °C	30 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
14 Oct after	26.1 °C	47 %	34 km/h	1.5 mm	Moderate 14
15 Oct after	31.5 °C	30 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
16 Oct after	38.5 °C	10 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
17 Oct after	41.1 °C	11 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
18 Oct after	37.7 °C	20 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
19 Oct after	36.0 °C	35 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
20 Oct after	39.6 °C	15 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
21 Oct after	36.9 °C	23 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
22 Oct after	33.5 °C	47 %	40 km/h	1.1 mm	High 23

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 15 Sept 2017

After · 17 Oct 2017

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 1,058Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Mozambique ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Derre fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 September 2017 and 10 October 2017: 19 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 14,637 hectares (146.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Derre (9,612 ha, 2.0 %); Mocuba (5,088 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 41.1 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned