ZW · Countries

Wildfires in Zimbabwe

2,409 fires over 1,000 hectares with a perimeter estimated by GWIS since 2016, adding up to 5,370,593 hectares burned across 69 districts.

Only fires of 1,000 ha or more get an entry: smaller ones are not in the lists or the entry totals, but they are in the GWIS yearly series.

These figures leave out 7 provisional pages, seen only as heat detections and still without a perimeter. They appear in the lists, marked.

The season, week by week

Copernicus GWIS

Zimbabwe, at this point in the year: 917,807 hectares, below the 2012–2025 average of 2,098,039.

2026 average 2012–2025 lowest and highest

2012–2026

Yearly average 2016–20252,099,867 ha

Worst year2022 3,018,840 ha

With a page here2,409 since 2016

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›See the year-by-year table

Year	Fires	hectares	Source
2026	3,122	920,887	GWIS
2025	2,901	1,020,932	GWIS
2024	3,271	1,144,755	GWIS
2023	7,111	2,385,610	GWIS
2022	7,159	3,018,840	GWIS
2021	6,166	2,113,478	GWIS
2020	3,640	1,221,719	GWIS
2019	7,211	2,757,470	GWIS
2018	7,894	2,710,993	GWIS
2017	6,152	2,445,508	GWIS
2016	5,755	2,179,365	GWIS
2015	7,668	3,196,594	GWIS
2014	7,462	2,863,008	GWIS
2013	6,875	2,564,322	GWIS
2012	8,037	3,271,385	GWIS

National estimates from Copernicus GWIS, rebuilt from heat detections since 2012.

Hectares with a perimeter estimated by GWIS by the fire’s starting month, and the largest fire of each year.

	Mar	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Σ	Largest of the year
2026		12k	22k	74k	194k	308k	146k			755,808	Hurungwe 31,897 ha
2025			11k		50k	183k	42k	4k		289,604	Mbire 13,596 ha
2024		6k	5k	32k	41k	50k	27k		5k	165,856	Nyanga 7,051 ha
2023		8k	12k	43k	64k	99k	61k	6k	6k	299,907	Lupane 13,313 ha
2022		5k	3k	12k	120k	449k	370k			959,117	Lupane 66,275 ha
2021		4k	16k	19k	47k	116k	127k	52k	10k	391,251	Hurungwe 18,057 ha
2020		4k		13k	35k	99k	22k	21k		193,482	Hurungwe 12,300 ha
2019	1k	27k	18k	64k	109k	295k	124k	16k		655,041	Lupane 26,931 ha
2018			11k	24k	163k	232k	169k	5k		604,654	Hurungwe 33,869 ha
2017		1k	2k	20k	158k	266k	140k	7k		595,307	Hwange 47,746 ha
2016		2k	14k	46k	73k	185k	130k	10k		460,566	Hurungwe 22,552 ha