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Bubi fire, August 2020 Bubi, Lupane

Out · last detection 19 Aug 2020, 11:17 UTC

The fire started on 14 August 2020 in Bubi, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,150 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 137th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 15 in Zimbabwe in 2020, of 91.

Burnt area
3,150ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
14 Aug 2020 – 19 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Aug
2020
Heat detections
92
in a single hotspot: 96 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Aug19 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819

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
44km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 137 ha in 2017, 1,729 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Bubi where it started
    2,799 ha reached on 14 Aug
    0.5 %
  2. Lupane
    366 ha reached on 16 Aug
    0.0 %

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 Aug 29.2 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Aug 28.9 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Aug 31.8 °C 11 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Aug 30.9 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Aug 30.5 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Aug 29.1 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Aug after 26.8 °C 32 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Aug after 26.8 °C 31 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Aug after 21.2 °C 53 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Aug after 25.3 °C 31 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Aug after 28.0 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Aug after 30.1 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Aug after 30.9 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Aug after 31.9 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Aug after 33.3 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Aug after 34.0 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Aug 2020
After · 26 Aug 2020

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 · 92Every 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 August 2020 and 19 August 2020: 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 3,150 hectares (31.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bubi (2,799 ha, 0.5 %); Lupane (366 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.