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Lupane fire, 9 September 2019 Lupane

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2019, 22:35 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2019 in Lupane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,036 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 31th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 487 with a page). Number 11 in Zimbabwe in 2019, of 282.

Burnt area
8,036ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
9 Sept 2019 – 23 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Sept
2019
Heat detections
520
in a single hotspot: 102 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

91011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
45km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,775 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Lupane where it started
    8,090 ha reached on 9 Sept
    0.8 %

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 Sept 24.7 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Sept 28.0 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Sept 30.2 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept 32.1 °C 9 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept 34.1 °C 6 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Sept 34.1 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Sept 33.2 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
16 Sept 33.2 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Sept 33.2 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Sept 32.5 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
19 Sept 32.9 °C 7 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
20 Sept 32.1 °C 7 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Sept 31.8 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Sept 33.0 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Sept 35.2 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Sept after 30.8 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Sept after 20.0 °C 52 % 59 km/h 0.5 mm High 36
26 Sept after 21.9 °C 24 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Sept after 25.8 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Sept after 29.5 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Sept after 31.5 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Sept after 34.1 °C 9 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
1 Oct after 32.0 °C 17 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
2 Oct after 25.5 °C 38 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
3 Oct after 29.6 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2019
After · 30 Sept 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 · 520Every 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 9 September 2019 and 23 September 2019: 15 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 8,036 hectares (80.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lupane (8,090 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.