How long did the Lupane fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 October 2018 and 1 November 2018: 29 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 26,727 hectares (267.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Lupane (24,584 ha, 2.4 %); Bubi (2,344 ha, 0.4 %); Umguza (1 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.

ZW · Zimbabwe · 2018-10-04 → 2018-11-01

Lupane fire, 4 October 2018 Lupane, Bubi, Umguza

Out · last detection 1 Nov 2018, 22:48 UTC

The fire started on 4 October 2018 in Lupane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,727 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 487 with a page). Number 2 in Zimbabwe in 2018, of 265.

Burnt area: 26,727ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 29days; 4 Oct 2018 – 1 Nov 2018
Municipalities hit: 3; districts
Started on: 4 Oct; 2018
Heat detections: 1,323; in a single hotspot: 178 MW
Danger at start: 58; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 19.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 1 Nov 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Oct1 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

4567891011121314151617181920212223252627282930311

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

57km/h · peak gust

8%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 6 Nov.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 330 ha in 2017.

330 ha Bubi fire, September 2017 5,403 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Lupane where it started

24,584 ha reached on 4 Oct

2.4 %
Bubi

2,344 ha reached on 14 Oct

0.4 %
Umguza

1 ha

0.0 %

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)
4 Oct	32.8 °C	20 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
5 Oct	29.8 °C	29 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
6 Oct	30.8 °C	23 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
7 Oct	31.8 °C	10 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
8 Oct	31.9 °C	12 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
9 Oct	31.1 °C	11 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
10 Oct	31.8 °C	14 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
11 Oct	33.5 °C	14 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
12 Oct	36.1 °C	11 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
13 Oct	33.6 °C	22 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
14 Oct	33.8 °C	20 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
15 Oct	34.7 °C	25 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
16 Oct	35.0 °C	21 %	31 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 50
17 Oct	36.0 °C	19 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
18 Oct	36.2 °C	15 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
19 Oct	34.2 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
20 Oct	35.5 °C	27 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
21 Oct	28.3 °C	34 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
22 Oct	26.9 °C	21 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
23 Oct	26.3 °C	20 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
24 Oct	27.7 °C	21 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
25 Oct	30.5 °C	12 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
26 Oct	33.8 °C	8 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
27 Oct	34.4 °C	8 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 62
28 Oct	34.1 °C	9 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
29 Oct	34.5 °C	9 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
30 Oct	35.4 °C	15 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
31 Oct	37.5 °C	11 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
1 Nov	36.9 °C	10 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 66
2 Nov after	37.9 °C	16 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 69
3 Nov after	29.8 °C	37 %	50 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 45
4 Nov after	33.3 °C	29 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
5 Nov after	34.5 °C	22 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
6 Nov after	32.6 °C	27 %	34 km/h	1.5 mm	High 32

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 27 Sept 2018

After · 8 Nov 2018

Before After

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 · 1,323Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Zimbabwe ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lupane fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 October 2018 and 1 November 2018: 29 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 26,727 hectares (267.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Lupane (24,584 ha, 2.4 %); Bubi (2,344 ha, 0.4 %); Umguza (1 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned