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Lupane fire, 2 September 2017 Lupane, Hwange

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2017, 00:15 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2017 in Lupane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 19,184 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 10th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 3 in Zimbabwe in 2017, of 238.

Burnt area
19,184ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
17days
2 Sept 2017 – 18 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
2 Sept
2017
Heat detections
693
in a single hotspot: 155 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept18 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

23456789101112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
45km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

4% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 806 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Lupane where it started
    14,739 ha reached on 2 Sept
    1.4 %
  2. Hwange
    4,531 ha reached on 2 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
2 Sept 29.1 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Sept 26.9 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Sept 26.4 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Sept 26.8 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Sept 28.6 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Sept 31.0 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Sept 32.2 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Sept 32.8 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Sept 31.7 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Sept 31.7 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept 32.0 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept 32.4 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Sept 34.0 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Sept 33.0 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept 32.7 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Sept 34.3 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Sept 33.3 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Sept after 32.7 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept after 33.2 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Sept after 31.8 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Sept after 32.4 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Sept after 34.2 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Sept after 32.5 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Sept after 32.7 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Sept after 35.0 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Sept after 36.9 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Sept after 32.3 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Aug 2017
After · 25 Sept 2017

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 · 693Every 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 Lupane fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 September 2017 and 18 September 2017: 17 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 19,184 hectares (191.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lupane (14,739 ha, 1.4 %); Hwange (4,531 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class 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.