Derre fire, 13 September 2024 Derre
The fire started on 13 September 2024 in Derre, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,002 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 841th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 150 in Mozambique in 2024, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 3,002ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 13 Sept 2024 – 20 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 113
- in a single hotspot: 60 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 138MW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.0 mm on 22 Sept.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,705 ha in 2016, 1,346 ha in 2017, 2,480 ha in 2018, 1,339 ha in 2019, 2,680 ha in 2020, 1,348 ha in 2021, 1,937 ha in 2022, 830 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,019 ha that had burned before.
- 2,480 ha Mocuba fire, September 2018 116,289 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,005 ha Morrumbala fire, September 2020 33,528 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,705 ha Derre fire, September 2016 116,560 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,350 ha Derre fire, September 2022 47,144 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,141 ha Derre fire, September 2017 5,529 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 784 ha Derre fire, September 2019 3,102 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 90 ha Derre fire, September 2023 3,611 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Derre where it started3,013 ha reached on 13 Sept0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Sept | 35.0 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Sept | 35.9 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 15 Sept | 36.9 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Sept | 35.9 °C | 15 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 17 Sept | 35.1 °C | 21 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 18 Sept | 35.5 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Sept | 35.8 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 20 Sept | 36.6 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 21 Sept after | 32.9 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Sept after | 26.0 °C | 68 % | 32 km/h | 7.0 mm | Very low 2 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 21 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 120 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 51: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 113Every 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 · 5 km away
- 72,800 haDerre8 September 2025 · 33 days · 13 km away
- 72,301 haDerre21 August 2026 · 28 days · 14 km away
- 116,560 haDerre2 September 2016 · 31 days · 21 km away
- 86,463 haMocuba13 September 2020 · 22 days · 36 km away
- 44,276 haMocubaSeptember 2017 · 28 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Derre fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2024 and 20 September 2024: 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 3,002 hectares (30.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Derre (3,013 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.