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Hwange fire, 6 October 2018 Hwange

Out · last detection 21 Oct 2018, 22:54 UTC

The fire started on 6 October 2018 in Hwange, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,712 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 8th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 3 in Zimbabwe in 2018, of 265.

Burnt area
24,712ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
6 Oct 2018 – 21 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
6 Oct
2018
Heat detections
874
in a single hotspot: 233 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
9.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Oct21 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314151718192021

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
61km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

13% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,286 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Hwange where it started
    20,529 ha reached on 10 Oct
    0.8 %

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)
6 Oct 33.3 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Oct 32.3 °C 14 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Oct 32.3 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
9 Oct 32.0 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
10 Oct 32.5 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Oct 34.4 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Oct 35.9 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Oct 36.8 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
14 Oct 36.2 °C 16 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
15 Oct 35.6 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
16 Oct 35.6 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.8 mm Very high 44
17 Oct 36.5 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Oct 37.2 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Oct 36.8 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Oct 36.0 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Oct 32.8 °C 29 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
22 Oct after 26.9 °C 28 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Oct after 27.3 °C 19 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Oct after 26.9 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Oct after 30.0 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 47
26 Oct after 32.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Oct after 34.2 °C 13 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
28 Oct after 33.3 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
29 Oct after 34.1 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Oct after 35.8 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Oct after 37.4 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Sept 2018
After · 28 Oct 2018

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 · 874Every 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 6 October 2018 and 21 October 2018: 16 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 24,712 hectares (247.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Hwange (20,529 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 76, class Very 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.