Hwange fire, 24 May 2023 Hwange
The fire started on 24 May 2023 in Hwange, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,608 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 165th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 20 in Zimbabwe in 2023, of 173.
- Burnt area
- 2,608ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 24 May 2023 – 26 May 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 24 May
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 84
- in a single hotspot: 64 MW
- Energy released
- 1.0GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,014 ha in 2016, 1,972 ha in 2018, 475 ha in 2019, 1,816 ha in 2021, 243 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,611 ha that had burned before.
- 1,972 ha Hwange fire, August 2018 5,288 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,816 ha Hwange fire, October 2021 15,800 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 537 ha Hwange fire, October 2016 1,070 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 477 ha Hwange fire, September 2016 18,638 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 471 ha Hwange fire, October 2019 1,013 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 243 ha Hwange fire, September 2022 2,854 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4 ha Hwange fire, July 2019 1,629 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Hwange where it started2,618 ha reached on 23 May0.1 %
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.
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 · 84Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 15,800 haHwange11 October 2021 · 6 days · 3 km away
- 18,638 haHwange24 September 2016 · 7 days · 16 km away
- 10,975 haHwange30 September 2019 · 6 days · 16 km away
- 11,187 haHwange2 September 2017 · 5 days · 25 km away
- 47,746 haHwange11 August 2017 · 15 days · 32 km away
- 35,803 haHwange22 September 2022 · 27 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Hwange fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 May 2023 and 26 May 2023: 3 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 2,608 hectares (26.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Hwange (2,618 ha, 0.1 %).
- 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.