Larde fire, 31 August 2026 Larde
The fire started on 31 August 2026 in Larde, Mozambique, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,296 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 49th largest in Nampula since 2016 (of 392 with a page). Number 93 in Mozambique in 2026, of 532.
- Burnt area
- 9,296ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 31 Aug 2026 – 14 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 31 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 255
- in a single hotspot: 237 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.8GW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 17 Sept.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,089 ha in 2016, 4,429 ha in 2017, 4,570 ha in 2018, 4,623 ha in 2019, 3,846 ha in 2020, 4,547 ha in 2021, 2,594 ha in 2022, 6,776 ha in 2023, 5,298 ha in 2024, 5,747 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,191 ha that had burned before.
- 6,484 ha Larde fire, September 2023 15,626 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,359 ha Larde fire, September 2024 6,393 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,732 ha Larde fire, October 2019 4,670 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,717 ha Larde fire, October 2016 5,969 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,186 ha Larde fire, September 2018 4,540 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,063 ha Larde fire, November 2017 3,055 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,796 ha Larde fire, October 2021 3,408 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,113 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 started9,348 ha reached on 31 Aug5.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Aug | 30.7 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Sept | 29.0 °C | 48 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 2 Sept | 31.4 °C | 40 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Sept | 31.3 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 4 Sept | 32.8 °C | 34 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Sept | 31.0 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Sept | 32.1 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Sept | 29.6 °C | 44 % | 48 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 35 |
| 8 Sept | 27.7 °C | 46 % | 39 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Sept | 28.7 °C | 58 % | 30 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 8 |
| 10 Sept | 30.8 °C | 50 % | 32 km/h | 2.2 mm | Low 9 |
| 11 Sept | 31.2 °C | 50 % | 33 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 12 Sept | 30.6 °C | 43 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Sept | 30.8 °C | 40 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Sept | 31.0 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 15 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 47 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 27 |
| 16 Sept after | 30.4 °C | 44 % | 49 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 44 % | 49 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 24 |
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 6 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 53 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 times the WHO daily 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 · 255Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,393 haLardeSeptember 2024 · 6 days · 2 km away
- 15,626 haLarde20 September 2023 · 26 days · 3 km away
- 5,969 haLarde3 October 2016 · 10 days · 5 km away
- 5,582 haLarde10 September 2025 · 10 days · 11 km away
- 8,159 haLarde11 September 2025 · 15 days · 24 km away
- 7,986 haLarde11 September 2023 · 9 days · 24 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Larde fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 August 2026 to 14 September 2026 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 August 2026 to 7 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 9,296 hectares (93.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Larde (9,348 ha, 5.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.