Bubi fire, 16 October 2021 Bubi, Umguza
The fire started on 16 October 2021 in Bubi, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,026 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 146th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 30 in Zimbabwe in 2021, of 176.
- Burnt area
- 3,026ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 16 Oct 2021 – 17 Oct 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Oct
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 65
- in a single hotspot: 83 MW
- Danger at start
- 57
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 18 Oct.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,571 ha in 2017, 141 ha in 2018.
- 2,571 ha Bubi fire, September 2017 5,403 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 133 ha Lupane fire, October 2018 26,727 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8 ha Bubi fire, August 2018 1,517 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bubi where it started2,821 ha reached on 16 Oct0.5 %
-
217 ha reached on 17 Oct0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Oct | 36.8 °C | 11 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 17 Oct | 36.6 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 18 Oct after | 28.7 °C | 42 % | 50 km/h | 1.9 mm | High 22 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 65Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,552 haLupane2 October 2022 · 4 days · 10 km away
- 16,870 haLupane10 October 2022 · 8 days · 17 km away
- 26,727 haLupane4 October 2018 · 29 days · 19 km away
- 8,255 haUmguzaOctober 2021 · 5 days · 23 km away
- 10,329 haUmguza19 September 2019 · 5 days · 24 km away
- 7,282 haUmguza27 September 2019 · 5 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bubi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 October 2021 and 17 October 2021: 2 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 3,026 hectares (30.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bubi (2,821 ha, 0.5 %); Umguza (217 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.
Report an error
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.