Skip to content
worldfires
ZW · Zimbabwe · →

Bubi fire, 9 October 2022 Bubi

Out · last detection 11 Oct 2022, 11:37 UTC

The fire started on 9 October 2022 in Bubi, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,988 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 149th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 52 in Zimbabwe in 2022, of 346.

Burnt area
2,988ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
9 Oct 2022 – 11 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Oct
2022
Heat detections
91
in a single hotspot: 184 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Oct 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Oct11 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

91011

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
57km/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

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 203 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Bubi where it started
    3,002 ha reached on 9 Oct
    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)
9 Oct 33.7 °C 11 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Oct 33.7 °C 12 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
11 Oct 31.9 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
12 Oct after 32.1 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Oct after 32.9 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Oct after 33.3 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Oct after 33.2 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
16 Oct after 30.2 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48
17 Oct after 32.1 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Oct after 31.1 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Oct after 30.1 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
20 Oct after 30.1 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Oct after 30.0 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Oct 2022
After · 18 Oct 2022

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 9 October 2022 and 11 October 2022: 3 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 2,988 hectares (29.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bubi (3,002 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.