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Binga fire, September 2020 Binga

Out · last detection 29 Sept 2020, 11:49 UTC

The fire started on 23 September 2020 in Binga, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,389 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 59th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 5 in Zimbabwe in 2020, of 91.

Burnt area
5,389ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
23 Sept 2020 – 29 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
23 Sept
2020
Heat detections
152
in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
948MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Sept29 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

23242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
42km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,436 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,268 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Binga where it started
    5,422 ha reached on 23 Sept
    0.4 %

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)
23 Sept 30.2 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Sept 31.4 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Sept 33.5 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Sept 36.2 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Sept 37.5 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Sept 36.3 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Sept 34.8 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Sept after 34.6 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Oct after 33.6 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Oct after 34.9 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Oct after 34.5 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Oct after 36.2 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Oct after 34.6 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
6 Oct after 33.9 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Oct after 29.8 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Oct after 32.3 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Oct after 32.6 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Sept 2020
After · 6 Oct 2020

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 · 152Every 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 23 September 2020 and 29 September 2020: 7 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 5,389 hectares (53.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Binga (5,422 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.

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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.