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Lupane fire, September 2020 Lupane

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2020, 12:14 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2020 in Lupane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,933 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 104th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 10 in Zimbabwe in 2020, of 91.

Burnt area
3,933ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
15 Sept 2020 – 17 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Sept
2020
Heat detections
136
in a single hotspot: 95 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

151617

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
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,529 ha in 2016, 1,065 ha in 2017, 1,579 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,995 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Lupane where it started
    3,953 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.4 %

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)
15 Sept 32.8 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Sept 33.0 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept 33.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept after 31.5 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Sept after 32.6 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Sept after 34.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Sept after 34.7 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Sept after 31.5 °C 22 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Sept after 30.6 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Sept after 32.0 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Sept after 34.2 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Sept after 36.4 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Sept after 37.3 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2020
After · 24 Sept 2020

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 · 136Every 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 15 September 2020 and 17 September 2020: 3 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 3,933 hectares (39.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lupane (3,953 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.