Derre fire, 5 September 2023 Derre, Morrumbala
The fire started on 5 September 2023 in Derre, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,611 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 614th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 845 with a page). Number 91 in Mozambique in 2023, of 128.
- Burnt area
- 3,611ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 5 Sept 2023 – 12 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 114
- in a single hotspot: 38 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- sum of detected power
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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 13 Sept.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,934 ha in 2016, 1,590 ha in 2017, 933 ha in 2018, 382 ha in 2019, 1,472 ha in 2020, 1,231 ha in 2021, 2,591 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,629 ha that had burned before.
- 2,934 ha Derre fire, September 2016 116,560 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,591 ha Derre fire, September 2022 47,144 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 714 ha Morrumbala fire, September 2020 33,528 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 701 ha Derre fire, September 2017 5,529 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 263 ha Mocuba fire, September 2018 116,289 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 155 ha Morrumbala fire, September 2019 29,579 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 41 ha Derre fire, September 2019 3,102 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7 ha Morrumbala fire, September 2020 10,838 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Derre where it started3,488 ha reached on 3 Sept0.7 %
-
136 ha0.0 %
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 | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Sept | 34.2 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 7 Sept | 31.7 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Sept | 30.1 °C | 38 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 9 Sept | 30.2 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Sept | 33.4 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 11 Sept | 34.2 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 12 Sept | 36.5 °C | 22 % | 48 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 48 |
| 13 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 48 % | 37 km/h | 2.8 mm | Low 9 |
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 · 114Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 47,144 haDerreSeptember 2022 · 20 days · 4 km away
- 72,301 haDerre21 August 2026 · 28 days · 9 km away
- 72,800 haDerre8 September 2025 · 33 days · 11 km away
- 116,560 haDerre2 September 2016 · 31 days · 23 km away
- 41,830 haMilange15 September 2020 · 26 days · 30 km away
- 86,463 haMocuba13 September 2020 · 22 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Derre fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2023 and 12 September 2023: 8 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 3,611 hectares (36.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Derre (3,488 ha, 0.7 %); Morrumbala (136 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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
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.