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Binga fire, 16 August 2017 Binga

Out · last detection 20 Aug 2017, 11:49 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2017 in Binga, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,691 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 158th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 49 in Zimbabwe in 2017, of 238.

Burnt area
2,691ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
16 Aug 2017 – 20 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Aug
2017
Heat detections
79
in a single hotspot: 110 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
879MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug20 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
43km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Binga where it started
    2,709 ha reached on 16 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
16 Aug 28.0 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Aug 30.3 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Aug 28.0 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Aug 25.1 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Aug 24.7 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Aug after 25.4 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Aug after 26.8 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Aug after 30.4 °C 15 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Aug after 31.3 °C 10 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Aug after 31.4 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug after 30.4 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Aug after 28.6 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Aug after 28.7 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Aug after 26.3 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Aug after 28.9 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Aug 2017
After · 27 Aug 2017

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 · 79Every 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 Binga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2017 and 20 August 2017: 5 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 2,691 hectares (26.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Binga (2,709 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 43 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 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.

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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.