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Lupane fire, 18 September 2023 Lupane

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2023, 23:44 UTC

The fire started on 18 September 2023 in Lupane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,419 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 129th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 11 in Zimbabwe in 2023, of 173.

Burnt area
3,419ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
18 Sept 2023 – 25 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Sept
2023
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 77 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Sept25 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122232425

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
46km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,864 ha in 2018, 981 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,865 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Lupane where it started
    3,441 ha reached on 12 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)
18 Sept 34.0 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Sept 34.1 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Sept 34.9 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Sept 35.5 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Sept 35.7 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Sept 34.7 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Sept 35.3 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Sept 35.8 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Sept after 34.1 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 48
27 Sept after 32.6 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 48
28 Sept after 33.0 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Sept after 33.5 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 43
30 Sept after 35.4 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
1 Oct after 38.4 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Oct after 31.3 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Oct after 32.1 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Oct after 32.8 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Oct after 34.4 °C 11 % 32 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.

Before · 11 Sept 2023
After · 2 Oct 2023

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 · 143Every 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 18 September 2023 and 25 September 2023: 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 3,419 hectares (34.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lupane (3,441 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.