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Gutu fire, 12 September 2026 Gutu

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2026, 11:04 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2026 in Gutu, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,555 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 44th largest in Masvingo since 2016 (of 96 with a page). Number 133 in Zimbabwe in 2026, of 370.

Burnt area
1,555ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
12 Sept 2026 – 17 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Sept
2026
Heat detections
28
in a single hotspot: 92 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
585MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12141517

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
37km/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

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Gutu where it started
    1,560 ha reached on 12 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
12 Sept 26.6 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Sept 27.6 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Sept 28.1 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept 29.2 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Sept 29.7 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept 29.3 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
18 Sept after 26.7 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept after 24.3 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept after 24.5 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Sept after 24.7 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Sept after 25.2 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Sept after 26.0 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Sept after 27.3 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Sept after 25.2 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Sept after 27.6 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Sept after 31.1 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2026
After · 24 Sept 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 17 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 79 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 53: 3.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak79 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1084 µg/m³
Optical depth0.82
1011121314151617181920
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 · 28Every 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 Gutu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 September 2026 and 17 September 2026: 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 1,555 hectares (15.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Gutu (1,560 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very 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.