Derre fire, 11 September 2019 Derre, Mocuba
The fire started on 11 September 2019 in Derre, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,860 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 152th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 17 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Derre · 2016Derre · 2017Mocuba · 2018Mocuba · 2018
- Burnt area
- 10,860ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 11 Sept 2019 – 24 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 11 Sept
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 698
- in a single hotspot: 134 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 383MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.8 mm on 2 Oct.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,208 ha in 2016, 6,391 ha in 2017, 4,434 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,671 ha that had burned before.
- 4,422 ha Derre fire, September 2016 116,560 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,141 ha Derre fire, September 2017 14,637 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,425 ha Mocuba fire, September 2018 116,289 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 36 ha Mocuba fire, September 2018 10,600 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Derre where it started10,690 ha reached on 5 Sept2.2 %
-
215 ha reached on 14 Sept0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 31.2 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Sept | 28.9 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Sept | 24.1 °C | 50 % | 55 km/h | 3.3 mm | Low 8 |
| 8 Sept | 24.6 °C | 42 % | 45 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 9 Sept | 26.0 °C | 29 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 10 Sept | 31.5 °C | 19 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Sept | 34.1 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 12 Sept | 36.3 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Sept | 36.4 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Sept | 37.1 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Sept | 33.6 °C | 26 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Sept | 32.1 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 17 Sept | 30.9 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 18 Sept | 29.9 °C | 36 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Sept | 31.1 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 20 Sept | 31.1 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Sept | 32.2 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Sept | 35.0 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Sept | 36.5 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Sept | 34.9 °C | 21 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 45 % | 46 km/h | 7.5 mm | Low 8 |
| 26 Sept after | 21.6 °C | 53 % | 50 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 27 Sept after | 25.9 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 28 Sept after | 31.9 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 29 Sept after | 35.1 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Sept after | 38.0 °C | 20 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Oct after | 38.3 °C | 16 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 2 Oct after | 24.3 °C | 76 % | 31 km/h | 6.8 mm | Very low 1 |
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.
Detections table · 698Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 116,560 haDerre2 September 2016 · 31 days · 7 km away
- 72,800 haDerre8 September 2025 · 33 days · 10 km away
- 47,144 haDerreSeptember 2022 · 20 days · 13 km away
- 72,301 haDerre21 August 2026 · 28 days · 18 km away
- 86,463 haMocuba13 September 2020 · 22 days · 23 km away
- 41,830 haMilange15 September 2020 · 26 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Derre fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 September 2019 and 24 September 2019: 14 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 10,860 hectares (108.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Derre (10,690 ha, 2.2 %); Mocuba (215 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 698 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.
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.