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Bubi fire, 16 October 2026 Bubi, Umguza

Dying down · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 12:34 UTC

The fire started on 16 October 2026 in Bubi, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,741 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 119th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 40 in Zimbabwe in 2026, of 370.

Is it still active?

No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 12:34 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

Burnt area
3,741ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
16 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
16 Oct
2026
Heat detections
92
in a single hotspot: 89 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Oct 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

16171819212223

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
37km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

73% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,487 ha in 2017, 77 ha in 2018, 2,049 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,717 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bubi where it started
    3,563 ha reached on 16 Oct
    0.6 %
  2. Umguza
    192 ha reached on 16 Oct
    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)
16 Oct 33.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Oct 33.0 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Oct 33.8 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Oct 2026
After · 23 Oct 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 15 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1023 µg/m³
Optical depth0.46
14151617
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 16 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (8 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 October 2026 to 22 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,741 hectares (37.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bubi (3,563 ha, 0.6 %); Umguza (192 ha, 0.0 %).
Is the Bubi fire still active?
No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 12:34 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
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.