Lupane fire, December 2023 Lupane
The fire started on 3 December 2023 in Lupane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,762 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 117th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 9 in Zimbabwe in 2023, of 173.
- Burnt area
- 3,762ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 3 Dec 2023 – 5 Dec 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 3 Dec
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 134
- in a single hotspot: 188 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.7GW
- 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 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 9 Dec.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 556 ha in 2017, 11 ha in 2018, 2,845 ha in 2019, 898 ha in 2021, 2,752 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,706 ha that had burned before.
- 2,420 ha Lupane fire, August 2022 66,275 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,307 ha Lupane fire, July 2019 5,283 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 683 ha Lupane fire, August 2021 1,208 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 556 ha Lupane fire, September 2017 4,752 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 538 ha Lupane fire, August 2019 13,018 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 332 ha Lupane fire, October 2022 23,883 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 215 ha Lupane fire, August 2021 1,799 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11 ha Lupane fire, September 2018 6,388 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lupane where it started3,784 ha reached on 3 Dec0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Dec | 35.1 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Dec | 36.6 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 5 Dec | 37.8 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Dec after | 38.0 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 7 Dec after | 35.4 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Dec after | 35.1 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 39 |
| 9 Dec after | 35.5 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 28 |
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 · 134Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 10,854 haLupane10 September 2026 · 11 days · 5 km away
- 13,018 haLupane26 August 2019 · 7 days · 9 km away
- 23,883 haLupane5 October 2022 · 11 days · 12 km away
- 26,931 haLupane19 October 2019 · 8 days · 19 km away
- 13,313 haLupane1 September 2023 · 6 days · 30 km away
- 7,737 haLupane11 September 2019 · 14 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lupane fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 December 2023 and 5 December 2023: 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 3,762 hectares (37.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lupane (3,784 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
- 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.