Kariba fire, 9 October 2023 Kariba
The fire started on 9 October 2023 in Kariba, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,437 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 53th largest in Mashonaland West since 2016 (of 823 with a page). Number 3 in Zimbabwe in 2023, of 173.
- Burnt area
- 5,437ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 9 Oct 2023 – 14 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 9 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 273
- in a single hotspot: 88 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.9GW
- 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.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 15 Oct.
This area had burned before
81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,318 ha in 2016, 1,628 ha in 2017, 643 ha in 2018, 3,136 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,387 ha that had burned before.
- 2,673 ha Kariba fire, October 2021 7,236 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,628 ha Kariba fire, September 2017 2,672 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,211 ha Kariba fire, September 2016 2,076 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 601 ha Kariba fire, August 2018 7,543 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 463 ha Kariba fire, October 2021 4,091 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 107 ha Kariba fire, September 2016 1,144 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 42 ha Kariba fire, September 2018 1,764 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kariba where it started5,469 ha reached on 8 Oct0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Oct | 35.4 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 10 Oct | 33.6 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Oct | 33.3 °C | 29 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 12 Oct | 34.7 °C | 25 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 13 Oct | 36.7 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 14 Oct | 36.4 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 15 Oct after | 33.8 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 33 |
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 · 273Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,236 haKariba12 October 2021 · 7 days · 4 km away
- 4,091 haKariba13 October 2021 · 5 days · 4 km away
- 3,542 haKariba18 September 2020 · 5 days · 6 km away
- 4,454 haKariba28 September 2026 · 2 days · 7 km away
- 11,931 haKaribaOctober 2016 · 6 days · 12 km away
- 7,543 haKariba5 August 2018 · 8 days · 12 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Kariba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2023 and 14 October 2023: 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 5,437 hectares (54.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Kariba (5,469 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.
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.