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Hwange fire, 17 June 2016 Hwange

Out · last detection 21 Jun 2016, 11:19 UTC

The fire started on 17 June 2016 in Hwange, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,128 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 139th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 487 with a page). Number 28 in Zimbabwe in 2016, of 229.

Burnt area
3,128ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
17 Jun 2016 – 21 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 Jun
2016
Heat detections
102
in a single hotspot: 121 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Jun 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Jun21 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
36km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Hwange where it started
    3,133 ha reached on 17 Jun
    0.1 %

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)
17 Jun 27.1 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Jun 26.0 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Jun 25.6 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Jun 26.4 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Jun 26.1 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Jun after 24.6 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Jun after 22.8 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Jun after 20.7 °C 36 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jun after 21.1 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Jun after 22.0 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Jun after 23.5 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jun after 24.9 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Jun after 26.4 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Jun after 26.1 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Jul after 26.7 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Jun 2016
After · 28 Jun 2016

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 · 102Every 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 Hwange fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 June 2016 and 21 June 2016: 5 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 3,128 hectares (31.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Hwange (3,133 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.