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Chikomba fire, 7 August 2019 Chikomba

Out · last detection 12 Aug 2019, 11:11 UTC

The fire started on 7 August 2019 in Chikomba, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,042 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 5th largest in Mashonaland East since 2016 (of 151 with a page). Number 47 in Zimbabwe in 2019, of 282.

Burnt area
3,042ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
7 Aug 2019 – 12 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
7 Aug
2019
Heat detections
82
in a single hotspot: 183 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Aug12 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

7891012

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
46km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,029 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Chikomba where it started
    3,057 ha reached on 7 Aug
    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)
7 Aug 28.2 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Aug 30.2 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Aug 27.0 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Aug 23.3 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Aug 25.7 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug 27.2 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Aug after 27.4 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Aug after 26.8 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Aug after 21.8 °C 37 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
16 Aug after 24.4 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Aug after 26.8 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Aug after 22.5 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Aug after 24.6 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Aug after 24.3 °C 25 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Aug after 18.4 °C 44 % 52 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
22 Aug after 20.1 °C 37 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Jul 2019
After · 19 Aug 2019

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 · 82Every 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 Chikomba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 August 2019 and 12 August 2019: 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 3,042 hectares (30.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chikomba (3,057 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.