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Binga fire, 12 September 2022 Binga

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2022, 23:19 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2022 in Binga, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,313 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 62th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 26 in Zimbabwe in 2022, of 346.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
5,313ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
12 Sept 2022 – 18 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Sept
2022
Heat detections
192
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
889MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718

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
51km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

29% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,695 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,526 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Binga where it started
    5,343 ha reached on 12 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)
12 Sept 31.7 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Sept 31.6 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
14 Sept 28.4 °C 23 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Sept 26.6 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Sept 29.6 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Sept 29.5 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Sept 31.6 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Sept after 33.2 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Sept after 33.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Sept after 32.5 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 46
22 Sept after 32.0 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Sept after 33.1 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Sept after 32.4 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Sept after 31.7 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Sept after 32.8 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Sept after 34.3 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Sept after 33.7 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2022
After · 25 Sept 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 · 192Every 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 12 September 2022 and 18 September 2022: 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 5,313 hectares (53.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Binga (5,343 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.