Skip to content
worldfires
MZ · Mozambique · →

Larde fire, 21 October 2019 Larde

Out · last detection 27 Oct 2019, 10:46 UTC

The fire started on 21 October 2019 in Larde, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,670 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 156th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 393 with a page). Number 81 in Mozambique in 2019, of 212.

Burnt area
4,670ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
21 Oct 2019 – 26 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Oct
2019
Heat detections
218
in a single hotspot: 157 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Oct26 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

21222324252627

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
45km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 3 Nov.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,274 ha in 2016, 1,932 ha in 2017, 2,824 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,576 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Larde where it started
    4,696 ha reached on 21 Oct
    2.5 %

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)
21 Oct 34.6 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Oct 35.6 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Oct 34.8 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Oct 35.3 °C 43 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Oct 36.3 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
26 Oct 36.4 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Oct after 37.5 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Oct after 38.6 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Oct after 39.0 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Oct after 37.1 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Oct after 34.5 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.8 mm High 26
1 Nov after 33.2 °C 50 % 47 km/h 0.3 mm High 30
2 Nov after 32.1 °C 46 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Nov after 31.8 °C 57 % 37 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Oct 2019
After · 2 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 · 218Every 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 21 October 2019 and 26 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 4,670 hectares (46.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Larde (4,696 ha, 2.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.