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Bubi fire, 15 September 2018 Bubi

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2018, 11:43 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2018 in Bubi, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,096 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 141th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 487 with a page). Number 40 in Zimbabwe in 2018, of 265.

Burnt area
3,096ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
15 Sept 2018 – 19 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Sept
2018
Heat detections
91
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
993MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
35km/h · peak gust
8%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. Bubi where it started
    3,112 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.5 %

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)
15 Sept 32.8 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Sept 33.6 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Sept 33.3 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept 35.0 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Sept 34.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Sept after 33.5 °C 15 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
21 Sept after 31.8 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
22 Sept after 31.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Sept after 30.1 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Sept after 30.9 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Sept after 31.6 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Sept after 32.8 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Sept after 33.3 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 54
28 Sept after 33.6 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Sept after 30.7 °C 20 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2018
After · 26 Sept 2018

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 · 91Every 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 15 September 2018 and 19 September 2018: 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 3,096 hectares (31.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bubi (3,112 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.