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MZ · Mozambique · →

Larde fire, 20 October 2019 Larde

Out · last detection 26 Oct 2019, 11:05 UTC

The fire started on 20 October 2019 in Larde, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,291 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 320th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 393 with a page). Number 162 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,291ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
20 Oct 2019 – 25 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
20 Oct
2019
Heat detections
153
in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start
8
Low · FWI index
Energy released
654MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Oct25 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
48km/h · peak gust
37%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 4 Nov.

This area had burned before

35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 982 ha in 2016, 41 ha in 2017, 266 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,148 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Larde where it started
    3,311 ha reached on 15 Oct
    1.8 %

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)
20 Oct 33.1 °C 45 % 40 km/h 3.0 mm Low 8
21 Oct 33.5 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 Oct 34.9 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
23 Oct 33.2 °C 44 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Oct 34.5 °C 45 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Oct 35.5 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
26 Oct after 35.2 °C 40 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Oct after 36.6 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Oct after 38.5 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Oct after 38.8 °C 16 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Oct after 36.8 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Oct after 33.3 °C 45 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Nov after 31.4 °C 55 % 50 km/h 0.2 mm High 27
2 Nov after 30.8 °C 48 % 49 km/h 0.3 mm High 27
3 Nov after 30.9 °C 57 % 39 km/h 0.5 mm High 22
4 Nov after 31.5 °C 58 % 39 km/h 2.0 mm Low 10

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Oct 2019
After · 1 Nov 2019

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 · 153Every 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 20 October 2019 and 25 October 2019: 6 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 3,291 hectares (32.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Larde (3,311 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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.