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Bubi fire, 22 September 2017 Bubi, Umguza

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2017, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 22 September 2017 in Bubi, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,913 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 107th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 487 with a page). Number 31 in Zimbabwe in 2017, of 238.

Burnt area
3,913ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
22 Sept 2017 – 27 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
22 Sept
2017
Heat detections
115
in a single hotspot: 141 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
49km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 6 Oct.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Bubi where it started
    2,746 ha reached on 19 Sept
    0.4 %
  2. Umguza
    1,181 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)
22 Sept 32.9 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept 34.6 °C 12 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
24 Sept 31.7 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Sept 33.1 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Sept 35.2 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Sept 35.7 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Sept after 30.3 °C 37 % 49 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 44
29 Sept after 30.0 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Sept after 30.5 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Oct after 30.6 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Oct after 31.7 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.8 mm High 36
3 Oct after 32.1 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Oct after 32.4 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Oct after 34.0 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Oct after 29.9 °C 31 % 44 km/h 4.1 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Sept 2017
After · 4 Oct 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 · 115Every 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 Bubi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 September 2017 and 27 September 2017: 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 3,913 hectares (39.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bubi (2,746 ha, 0.4 %); Umguza (1,181 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.