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Lupane fire, 11 September 2019 Lupane

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2019, 11:05 UTC

The fire started on 11 September 2019 in Lupane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,434 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 128th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 40 in Zimbabwe in 2019, of 282.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.1 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
3,434ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
11 Sept 2019 – 23 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
11 Sept
2019
Heat detections
228
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
41km/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

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Lupane where it started
    3,449 ha reached on 11 Sept
    0.3 %

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)
11 Sept 30.5 °C 12 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept 32.2 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept 34.3 °C 6 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Sept 34.5 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Sept 33.3 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
16 Sept 33.2 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Sept 33.1 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Sept 32.7 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Sept 32.9 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Sept 32.0 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Sept 31.8 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Sept 33.3 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Sept 35.7 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Sept after 32.0 °C 25 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Sept after 21.8 °C 48 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Sept after 23.0 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Sept after 26.0 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Sept after 29.8 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Sept after 32.0 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Sept after 34.5 °C 9 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Oct after 32.8 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
2 Oct after 26.6 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Oct after 29.6 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 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 · 228Every 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 11 September 2019 and 23 September 2019: 13 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 3,434 hectares (34.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lupane (3,449 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.