Lupane fire, 29 August 2022 Lupane, Hwange
The fire started on 29 August 2022 in Lupane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 66,275 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). The largest in Zimbabwe in 2022, of 346.
- Burnt area
- 66,275ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 29 Aug 2022 – 17 Sept 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 29 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 2,662
- in a single hotspot: 165 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 27.0GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,075 ha in 2016, 18,219 ha in 2017, 4,323 ha in 2018, 26,176 ha in 2019, 2,931 ha in 2020, 2,387 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 45,198 ha that had burned before.
- 10,882 ha Lupane fire, September 2017 19,184 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,353 ha Lupane fire, October 2019 26,931 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,078 ha Lupane fire, October 2019 6,195 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,323 ha Lupane fire, September 2018 6,388 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,853 ha Lupane fire, July 2019 5,283 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,348 ha Lupane fire, August 2019 4,361 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,187 ha Lupane fire, August 2017 4,048 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,931 ha Lupane fire, September 2020 3,933 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lupane where it started47,127 ha reached on 28 Aug4.6 %
-
19,481 ha reached on 2 Sept0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Aug | 30.5 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 30 Aug | 30.4 °C | 14 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 31 Aug | 26.4 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Sept | 24.6 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Sept | 24.4 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Sept | 27.7 °C | 21 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 Sept | 31.1 °C | 17 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 5 Sept | 35.1 °C | 8 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Sept | 32.7 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 7 Sept | 28.8 °C | 26 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Sept | 29.2 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Sept | 30.3 °C | 19 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 Sept | 31.1 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Sept | 32.3 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Sept | 33.0 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 13 Sept | 31.1 °C | 21 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 14 Sept | 28.8 °C | 19 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 15 Sept | 28.0 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 16 Sept | 30.0 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Sept | 30.5 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Sept after | 32.7 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 19 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Sept after | 33.3 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Sept after | 31.7 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Sept after | 32.7 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Sept after | 32.4 °C | 20 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 26 Sept after | 33.1 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Sept after | 34.7 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 2,662Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lupane fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 August 2022 and 17 September 2022: 20 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 66,275 hectares (662.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lupane (47,127 ha, 4.6 %); Hwange (19,481 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.
Report an error
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.