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Binga fire, 23 September 2022 Binga

Out · last detection 28 Sept 2022, 12:21 UTC

The fire started on 23 September 2022 in Binga, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,182 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 136th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 487 with a page). Number 49 in Zimbabwe in 2022, of 346.

Burnt area
3,182ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
23 Sept 2022 – 28 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
23 Sept
2022
Heat detections
111
in a single hotspot: 185 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Sept28 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
45km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,242 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,157 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Binga where it started
    3,200 ha reached on 23 Sept
    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)
23 Sept 33.0 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Sept 32.4 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Sept 31.7 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Sept 32.7 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Sept 34.3 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Sept 33.7 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Sept after 31.3 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Sept after 31.1 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Oct after 31.8 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Oct after 33.9 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Oct after 33.4 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Oct after 34.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Oct after 35.2 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
6 Oct after 33.8 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Oct after 35.1 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
8 Oct after 34.8 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Sept 2022
After · 5 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 · 111Every 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 2022 and 28 September 2022: 6 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 3,182 hectares (31.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Binga (3,200 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 45 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.