Makonde fire, 14 October 2016 Makonde
The fire started on 14 October 2016 in Makonde, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,036 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 756th largest in Mashonaland West since 2016 (of 823 with a page). Number 215 in Zimbabwe in 2016, of 229.
The power measured by the satellite is low (16.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,036ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 14 Oct 2016 – 17 Oct 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Oct
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 27
- in a single hotspot: 16 MW
- Energy released
- 161MW
- 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.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Makonde where it started1,039 ha reached on 13 Oct0.1 %
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.
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 · 27Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,606 haMakonde16 September 2025 · 6 days · 28 km away
- 6,062 haMakonde19 October 2022 · 7 days · 30 km away
- 7,970 haMakonde 13 October 2026 · 11 days · 32 km away
- 4,676 haMakonde16 October 2022 · 9 days · 32 km away
- 5,294 haMakondeNovember 2021 · 4 days · 33 km away
- 4,302 haMakonde13 September 2025 · 13 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Makonde fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 October 2016 and 17 October 2016: 4 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 1,036 hectares (10.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Makonde (1,039 ha, 0.1 %).
- 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.