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Bubi fire, 14 October 2018 Umguza, Bubi

Out · last detection 19 Oct 2018, 12:20 UTC

The fire started on 14 October 2018 in Bubi, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,863 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 111th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 487 with a page). Number 27 in Zimbabwe in 2018, of 265.

Burnt area
3,863ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
14 Oct 2018 – 18 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Oct
2018
Heat detections
97
in a single hotspot: 382 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
6.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Oct18 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1415171819

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
50km/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

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

What happened to each town

  1. Umguza
    2,513 ha reached on 15 Oct
    0.4 %
  2. Bubi where it started
    1,363 ha reached on 14 Oct
    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)
14 Oct 33.5 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Oct 34.1 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Oct 34.5 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Oct 35.7 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Oct 35.4 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Oct after 33.8 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Oct after 35.7 °C 22 % 54 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 59
21 Oct after 26.9 °C 37 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Oct after 25.8 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Oct after 25.4 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Oct after 26.8 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Oct after 30.3 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Oct after 33.4 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Oct after 33.8 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
28 Oct after 33.8 °C 10 % 45 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 · 7 Oct 2018
After · 25 Oct 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 · 97Every 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 14 October 2018 and 18 October 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 3,863 hectares (38.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Umguza (2,513 ha, 0.4 %); Bubi (1,363 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 50 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.