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Larde fire, 11 October 2016 Larde

Out · last detection 18 Oct 2016, 10:47 UTC

The fire started on 11 October 2016 in Larde, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,498 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 282th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 144 in Mozambique in 2016, of 194.

Burnt area
3,498ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
11 Oct 2016 – 17 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
11 Oct
2016
Heat detections
114
in a single hotspot: 87 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Oct17 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
48km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 19 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Larde where it started
    3,520 ha reached on 11 Oct
    1.9 %

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)
11 Oct 32.8 °C 40 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Oct 32.2 °C 50 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Oct 32.1 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
14 Oct 29.6 °C 54 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
15 Oct 29.7 °C 59 % 34 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 13
16 Oct 32.1 °C 45 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
17 Oct 34.6 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Oct after 34.1 °C 38 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Oct after 29.8 °C 63 % 41 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 15

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Oct 2016
After · 24 Oct 2016

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.
⬇ 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 Larde fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 October 2016 and 17 October 2016: 7 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 3,498 hectares (35.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Larde (3,520 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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.