Lupane fire, 10 September 2026 Lupane
The fire started on 10 September 2026 in Lupane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,854 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 21th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 4 in Zimbabwe in 2026, of 370.
- Burnt area
- 10,854ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 10 Sept 2026 – 20 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 10 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 234
- in a single hotspot: 220 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.2GW
- 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 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.9 mm on 21 Sept.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 475 ha in 2017, 636 ha in 2018, 6,791 ha in 2019, 700 ha in 2021, 6,723 ha in 2022, 2,847 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,232 ha that had burned before.
- 6,723 ha Lupane fire, August 2022 66,275 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,405 ha Lupane fire, July 2019 5,283 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,079 ha Lupane fire, December 2023 3,762 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,416 ha Lupane fire, August 2019 4,361 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 855 ha Lupane fire, August 2019 1,015 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 767 ha Lupane fire, August 2023 1,835 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 663 ha Lupane fire, August 2021 1,799 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 636 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 started10,914 ha reached on 10 Sept1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Sept | 29.3 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Sept | 31.1 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 12 Sept | 32.5 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 13 Sept | 32.9 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Sept | 33.7 °C | 17 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 15 Sept | 34.1 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 16 Sept | 34.8 °C | 16 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 17 Sept | 34.7 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 18 Sept | 33.4 °C | 15 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 19 Sept | 31.3 °C | 22 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 20 Sept | 30.9 °C | 20 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 21 Sept after | 26.5 °C | 36 % | 30 km/h | 2.9 mm | Low 11 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 18 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 49 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 234Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,018 haLupane26 August 2019 · 7 days · 14 km away
- 23,883 haLupane5 October 2022 · 11 days · 17 km away
- 26,931 haLupane19 October 2019 · 8 days · 18 km away
- 7,383 haLupane12 September 2019 · 10 days · 20 km away
- 13,313 haLupane1 September 2023 · 6 days · 27 km away
- 7,737 haLupane11 September 2019 · 14 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lupane fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 September 2026 and 20 September 2026: 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 10,854 hectares (108.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Lupane (10,914 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.