Skip to content
worldfires
ZW · Zimbabwe · →

Bindura fire, 2 October 2022 Bindura, Shamva

Out · last detection 12 Oct 2022, 11:19 UTC

The fire started on 2 October 2022 in Bindura, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,034 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Mashonaland Central since 2016 (of 334 with a page). Number 22 in Zimbabwe in 2022, of 346.

Burnt area
6,034ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
2 Oct 2022 – 12 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
2 Oct
2022
Heat detections
216
in a single hotspot: 51 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Oct 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Oct12 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

23456789101112

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
56km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,285 ha in 2016, 483 ha in 2018, 1,092 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,839 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bindura where it started
    5,976 ha reached on 26 Sept
    2.6 %
  2. Shamva
    89 ha reached on 10 Oct
    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)
2 Oct 29.6 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Oct 30.3 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Oct 32.2 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Oct 31.2 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Oct 30.3 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Oct 32.0 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Oct 29.6 °C 21 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
9 Oct 30.5 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Oct 31.4 °C 16 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Oct 29.4 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Oct 29.2 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Oct after 30.0 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Oct after 30.7 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Oct after 31.2 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Oct after 29.7 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Oct after 29.0 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Oct after 29.1 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Oct after 29.0 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Oct after 27.6 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Oct after 28.2 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 38
22 Oct after 29.3 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Sept 2022
After · 19 Oct 2022

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 · 216Every 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 Zimbabwe ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bindura fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 October 2022 and 12 October 2022: 11 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 6,034 hectares (60.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bindura (5,976 ha, 2.6 %); Shamva (89 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zimbabwe (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.