Derre fire, 12 September 2025 Derre, Morrumbala
The fire started on 12 September 2025 in Derre, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,111 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 351th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 126 in Mozambique in 2025, of 313.
- Burnt area
- 5,111ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 12 Sept 2025 – 22 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 12 Sept
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 181
- in a single hotspot: 104 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 26 Sept.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 421 ha in 2016, 202 ha in 2018, 846 ha in 2019, 19 ha in 2020, 172 ha in 2021, 392 ha in 2022, 1,872 ha in 2023, 894 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,760 ha that had burned before.
- 1,830 ha Derre fire, August 2023 3,151 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 202 ha Morrumbala fire, September 2018 13,593 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 104 ha Derre fire, September 2022 47,144 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Derre where it started3,713 ha reached on 7 Sept0.8 %
-
1,423 ha reached on 13 Sept0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 Sept | 33.7 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Sept | 31.3 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Sept | 32.8 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Sept | 32.0 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 16 Sept | 34.4 °C | 25 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 17 Sept | 36.7 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Sept | 36.3 °C | 24 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 19 Sept | 32.8 °C | 36 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Sept | 30.5 °C | 34 % | 42 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Sept | 30.9 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Sept | 33.0 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 23 Sept after | 37.0 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 24 Sept after | 35.6 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Sept after | 34.1 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 26 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 50 % | 40 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 23 |
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 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).
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 · 181Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 72,301 haDerre21 August 2026 · 28 days · 19 km away
- 72,800 haDerre8 September 2025 · 33 days · 26 km away
- 47,144 haDerreSeptember 2022 · 20 days · 28 km away
- 38,678 haMorrumbala16 September 2018 · 14 days · 30 km away
- 33,528 haMorrumbala9 September 2020 · 15 days · 32 km away
- 28,047 haMorrumbala20 August 2026 · 26 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Derre fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2025 and 22 September 2025: 11 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 5,111 hectares (51.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Derre (3,713 ha, 0.8 %); Morrumbala (1,423 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
- 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.