Chegutu fire, October 2022 Chegutu
The fire started on 8 October 2022 in Chegutu, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,368 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 107th largest in Mashonaland West since 2016 (of 823 with a page). Number 46 in Zimbabwe in 2022, of 346.
- Burnt area
- 3,368ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 8 Oct 2022 – 9 Oct 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Oct
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 105
- in a single hotspot: 161 MW
- Danger at start
- 65
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.2GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,287 ha in 2017, 859 ha in 2018, 68 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,730 ha that had burned before.
- 1,287 ha Chegutu fire, August 2017 3,170 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 859 ha Chegutu fire, August 2018 1,045 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 68 ha Chegutu fire, September 2019 1,192 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chegutu where it started3,382 ha reached on 8 Oct0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Oct | 31.6 °C | 13 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 9 Oct | 32.3 °C | 13 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 10 Oct after | 32.9 °C | 12 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 11 Oct after | 31.1 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 12 Oct after | 30.7 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 13 Oct after | 31.2 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 14 Oct after | 31.9 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 15 Oct after | 31.7 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 16 Oct after | 30.5 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Oct after | 30.7 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 18 Oct after | 30.8 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Oct after | 30.0 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
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 · 105Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,170 haChegutu14 August 2017 · 5 days · 1 km away
- 1,663 haChegutuAugust 2016 · 2 days · 18 km away
- 2,472 haZvimbaOctober 2018 · 4 days · 21 km away
- 2,988 haChegutu13 September 2017 · 4 days · 22 km away
- 1,873 haZvimba8 October 2022 · 3 days · 30 km away
- 2,023 haSeke15 September 2025 · 2 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chegutu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 October 2022 and 9 October 2022: 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 3,368 hectares (33.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chegutu (3,382 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.