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Kariba fire, 14 July 2019 Kariba

Out · last detection 20 Jul 2019, 22:53 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2019 in Kariba, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,089 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 120th largest in Mashonaland West since 2016 (of 823 with a page). Number 44 in Zimbabwe in 2019, of 282.

The power measured by the satellite is low (18.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,089ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
14 Jul 2019 – 20 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Jul
2019
Heat detections
121
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
412MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul20 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
33km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,747 ha in 2016, 99 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Kariba where it started
    3,106 ha reached on 14 Jul
    0.4 %

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)
14 Jul 24.3 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Jul 24.6 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Jul 24.9 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
17 Jul 24.9 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Jul 25.5 °C 27 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Jul 26.0 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
20 Jul 27.7 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Jul after 29.4 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Jul after 23.6 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Jul after 23.1 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Jul after 27.2 °C 24 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Jul after 27.7 °C 20 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jul after 26.4 °C 27 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Jul after 24.1 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Jul after 24.7 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Jul after 25.8 °C 30 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Jul after 25.8 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jul 2019
After · 27 Jul 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 · 121Every 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 Kariba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 July 2019 and 20 July 2019: 7 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 3,089 hectares (30.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kariba (3,106 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.7 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.