Larde fire, September 2024 Larde
The fire started on 17 September 2024 in Larde, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,393 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 105th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 40 in Mozambique in 2024, of 150.
- Burnt area
- 6,393ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 17 Sept 2024 – 22 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 226
- in a single hotspot: 165 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.1GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 23 Sept.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,777 ha in 2016, 3,251 ha in 2017, 3,549 ha in 2018, 2,977 ha in 2019, 2,698 ha in 2020, 3,545 ha in 2021, 1,691 ha in 2022, 4,926 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,310 ha that had burned before.
- 4,274 ha Larde fire, September 2023 15,626 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,610 ha Larde fire, October 2019 4,670 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,389 ha Larde fire, October 2016 5,969 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,253 ha Larde fire, October 2021 3,408 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,022 ha Larde fire, November 2017 3,055 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,290 ha Larde fire, September 2018 4,540 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 486 ha Larde fire, October 2017 3,782 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 388 ha Larde fire, September 2016 4,901 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Larde where it started6,430 ha reached on 15 Sept3.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Sept | 32.3 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Sept | 32.7 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Sept | 33.3 °C | 35 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Sept | 33.6 °C | 35 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Sept | 31.8 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 22 Sept | 29.7 °C | 57 % | 42 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Sept after | 28.5 °C | 57 % | 54 km/h | 3.2 mm | Low 10 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 21 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 19 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
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 · 226Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,296 haLarde31 August 2026 · 15 days · 2 km away
- 5,969 haLarde3 October 2016 · 10 days · 3 km away
- 15,626 haLarde20 September 2023 · 26 days · 4 km away
- 5,582 haLarde10 September 2025 · 10 days · 12 km away
- 8,159 haLarde11 September 2025 · 15 days · 24 km away
- 5,231 haLardeAugust 2020 · 8 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Larde fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2024 and 22 September 2024: 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 6,393 hectares (63.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Larde (6,430 ha, 3.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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
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.