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MZ · Mozambique · →

Derre fire, 8 September 2025 Derre, Morrumbala, Milange

Out · last detection 11 Oct 2025, 10:50 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2025 in Derre, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 72,800 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 21th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 845 with a page). Number 3 in Mozambique in 2025, of 313.

Burnt area
72,800ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
33days
8 Sept 2025 – 10 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
4
districts
Started on
8 Sept
2025
Heat detections
4,330
in a single hotspot: 150 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
40.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Oct 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept10 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213141516171819202122232425282923567891011

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 18 Oct.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 42,776 ha in 2016, 29,190 ha in 2017, 37,420 ha in 2018, 40,744 ha in 2019, 28,791 ha in 2020, 24,004 ha in 2021, 37,730 ha in 2022, 25,137 ha in 2023, 21,225 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 71,793 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Derre where it started
    39,351 ha reached on 4 Sept
    8.2 %
  2. Morrumbala
    28,985 ha reached on 7 Sept
    3.6 %
  3. Milange
    3,209 ha reached on 9 Sept
    0.6 %
  4. Mocuba
    1,559 ha reached on 13 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
8 Sept 33.2 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Sept 32.2 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Sept 32.7 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Sept 33.0 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Sept 33.6 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Sept 31.7 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Sept 33.2 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept 31.8 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
16 Sept 34.9 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Sept 36.8 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Sept 36.0 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Sept 33.0 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Sept 30.9 °C 34 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Sept 31.2 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
22 Sept 34.1 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Sept 36.8 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Sept 36.0 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Sept 34.4 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Sept 28.7 °C 55 % 36 km/h 2.3 mm Low 10
27 Sept 28.7 °C 48 % 33 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 14
28 Sept 33.7 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Sept 37.3 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Sept 28.7 °C 64 % 37 km/h 6.9 mm Very low 4
1 Oct 26.7 °C 51 % 42 km/h 2.0 mm Low 7
2 Oct 28.8 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 16
3 Oct 29.2 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 Oct 26.2 °C 56 % 41 km/h 3.7 mm Low 6
5 Oct 28.1 °C 45 % 27 km/h 0.7 mm Low 10
6 Oct 32.4 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Oct 34.9 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Oct 32.8 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
9 Oct 33.3 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Oct 32.5 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Oct after 33.4 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
12 Oct after 35.6 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Oct after 36.5 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Oct after 35.7 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Oct after 36.5 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Oct after 37.0 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Oct after 34.0 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Oct after 32.1 °C 40 % 31 km/h 1.1 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2025
After · 17 Oct 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 22 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 169 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 62: 4.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak169 µg/m³
Days over the guideline22 days
PM10173 µg/m³
Optical depth1.94
678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293012345678910111213
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 4,330Every 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 8 September 2025 and 10 October 2025: 33 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 72,800 hectares (728.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Derre (39,351 ha, 8.2 %); Morrumbala (28,985 ha, 3.6 %); Milange (3,209 ha, 0.6 %); Mocuba (1,559 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 45 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.

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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.