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Larde fire, October 2023 Larde, Angoche

Out · last detection 14 Oct 2023, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 6 October 2023 in Larde, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,965 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 216th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 76 in Mozambique in 2023, of 128.

Burnt area
3,965ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
6 Oct 2023 – 14 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
6 Oct
2023
Heat detections
124
in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Oct 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Oct14 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
42km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.4 mm on 18 Oct.

This area had burned before

48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 779 ha in 2016, 1,373 ha in 2017, 399 ha in 2020, 123 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,886 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Larde where it started
    3,913 ha reached on 6 Oct
    2.1 %
  2. Angoche
    69 ha
    0.0 %

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)
6 Oct 32.7 °C 44 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
7 Oct 34.1 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Oct 34.9 °C 38 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Oct 32.7 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Oct 33.5 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
11 Oct 33.6 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Oct 34.6 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Oct 36.4 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Oct 37.8 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Oct after 36.7 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Oct after 34.7 °C 43 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Oct after 34.9 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Oct after 33.4 °C 38 % 33 km/h 2.4 mm Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Sept 2023
After · 21 Oct 2023

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 · 124Every 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 6 October 2023 and 14 October 2023: 9 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 3,965 hectares (39.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Larde (3,913 ha, 2.1 %); Angoche (69 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 42 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.