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Derre fire, 11 September 2026 Morrumbala, Derre

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2026, 11:30 UTC

The fire started on 11 September 2026 in Derre, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,978 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 136th largest in Zambézia since 2016 (of 842 with a page). Number 72 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.

Burnt area
11,978ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
11 Sept 2026 – 21 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
11 Sept
2026
Heat detections
422
in a single hotspot: 76 MW
Danger at start
7
Low · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
54km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 29 Sept.

This area had burned before

49% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 253 ha in 2018, 1,046 ha in 2019, 188 ha in 2023, 5,153 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,841 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Morrumbala
    6,198 ha
    0.8 %
  2. Derre where it started
    5,863 ha
    1.2 %

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)
10 Sept 29.8 °C 50 % 29 km/h 2.0 mm Low 7
11 Sept 30.4 °C 52 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 14
12 Sept 32.3 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Sept 31.7 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
14 Sept 31.5 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Sept 34.8 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Sept 34.7 °C 23 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept 35.8 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept 34.2 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept 31.2 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
20 Sept 31.6 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Sept 32.0 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept after 30.8 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Sept after 29.7 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
24 Sept after 30.8 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Sept after 30.4 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm High 32
26 Sept after 33.7 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Sept after 37.4 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Sept after 38.8 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Sept after 33.6 °C 33 % 51 km/h 2.2 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Sept 2026
After · 28 Sept 2026

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 16 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 111 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 51: 3.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak111 µg/m³
Days over the guideline17 days
PM10115 µg/m³
Optical depth1.80
891011121314151617181920212223242526272829301
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 · 422Every 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 11 September 2026 and 21 September 2026: 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 11,978 hectares (119.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Morrumbala (6,198 ha, 0.8 %); Derre (5,863 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.8 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.