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MZ · Mozambique · →

Derre fire, 6 September 2019 Derre

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2019, 11:12 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2019 in Derre, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,712 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 584th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 845 with a page). Number 125 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

Burnt area
3,712ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
6 Sept 2019 – 12 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
6 Sept
2019
Heat detections
130
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

678910111213

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
58km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,498 ha in 2016, 698 ha in 2017, 1,283 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,420 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Derre where it started
    3,730 ha reached on 2 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
6 Sept 28.3 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Sept 23.9 °C 49 % 58 km/h 2.7 mm Low 11
8 Sept 24.9 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
9 Sept 25.7 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
10 Sept 31.5 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Sept 34.5 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Sept 36.0 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Sept after 36.9 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Sept after 36.8 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Sept after 33.0 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept after 31.8 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept after 30.1 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Sept after 29.3 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Sept after 30.3 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Sept after 30.5 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Sept after 31.4 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Sept after 34.9 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2019
After · 19 Sept 2019

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 · 130Every 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 Derre fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 September 2019 and 12 September 2019: 7 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 3,712 hectares (37.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Derre (3,730 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.

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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.