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Lupane fire, 19 October 2019 Lupane, Hwange

Out · last detection 27 Oct 2019, 23:37 UTC

The fire started on 19 October 2019 in Lupane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,931 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). The largest in Zimbabwe in 2019, of 282.

Burnt area
26,931ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
19 Oct 2019 – 26 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
19 Oct
2019
Heat detections
825
in a single hotspot: 226 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
11.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Oct26 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
58km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 2 Nov.

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,423 ha in 2016, 4,096 ha in 2017, 1,439 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Lupane where it started
    26,235 ha reached on 19 Oct
    2.6 %
  2. Hwange
    853 ha reached on 19 Oct
    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)
19 Oct 34.7 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Oct 37.3 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Oct 38.4 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Oct 38.6 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
23 Oct 37.3 °C 18 % 58 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 65
24 Oct 38.7 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
25 Oct 37.8 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
26 Oct 38.5 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Oct after 38.0 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Oct after 39.5 °C 15 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Oct after 38.7 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm Extreme 56
30 Oct after 36.6 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Oct after 35.7 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 53
1 Nov after 34.5 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Nov after 32.6 °C 33 % 38 km/h 2.8 mm Moderate 17

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Oct 2019
After · 2 Nov 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 · 825Every 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 19 October 2019 and 26 October 2019: 8 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 26,931 hectares (269.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lupane (26,235 ha, 2.6 %); Hwange (853 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 65, 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.