Lupane fire, 5 October 2022 Lupane, Tsholotsho
The fire started on 5 October 2022 in Lupane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,883 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 9th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 6 in Zimbabwe in 2022, of 346.
- Burnt area
- 23,883ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 5 Oct 2022 – 15 Oct 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Oct
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 882
- in a single hotspot: 214 MW
- Danger at start
- 58
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 13.3GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,239 ha in 2016, 10,611 ha in 2017, 8,658 ha in 2019, 3,521 ha in 2020, 3,106 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,110 ha that had burned before.
- 4,903 ha Lupane fire, August 2019 13,018 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,755 ha Lupane fire, October 2019 26,931 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,035 ha Tsholotsho fire, July 2016 6,700 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,471 ha Lupane fire, July 2017 4,872 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,445 ha Lupane fire, September 2017 4,752 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,911 ha Lupane fire, August 2020 3,090 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,851 ha Lupane fire, September 2017 2,214 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,708 ha Lupane fire, September 2017 2,000 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lupane where it started20,273 ha reached on 5 Oct2.0 %
-
3,744 ha reached on 6 Oct0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Oct | 35.6 °C | 14 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 6 Oct | 35.1 °C | 16 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 7 Oct | 36.4 °C | 10 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 8 Oct | 35.8 °C | 10 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 9 Oct | 35.3 °C | 10 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 10 Oct | 36.2 °C | 9 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 11 Oct | 34.4 °C | 10 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 12 Oct | 34.0 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 13 Oct | 35.2 °C | 9 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 14 Oct | 35.4 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 15 Oct | 35.4 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 16 Oct after | 33.3 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 17 Oct after | 34.6 °C | 19 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 18 Oct after | 33.6 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 19 Oct after | 32.5 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 20 Oct after | 33.4 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 21 Oct after | 33.2 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 22 Oct after | 34.3 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 23 Oct after | 35.1 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 46 |
| 24 Oct after | 33.1 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Oct after | 34.8 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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 · 882Every 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 5 October 2022 and 15 October 2022: 11 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 23,883 hectares (238.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lupane (20,273 ha, 2.0 %); Tsholotsho (3,744 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 66, 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.