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Mangwe fire, 9 October 2018 Mangwe, Matobo

Out · last detection 12 Oct 2018, 11:11 UTC

The fire started on 9 October 2018 in Mangwe, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,823 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 16th largest in Matabeleland South since 2016 (of 203 with a page). Number 28 in Zimbabwe in 2018, of 265.

Burnt area
3,823ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
9 Oct 2018 – 12 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
9 Oct
2018
Heat detections
122
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Oct12 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

9101112

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

34°high
44km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mangwe where it started
    2,078 ha reached on 9 Oct
    0.4 %
  2. Matobo
    1,752 ha reached on 9 Oct
    0.2 %

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)
9 Oct 26.5 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Oct 29.3 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Oct 31.0 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Oct 33.7 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
13 Oct after 30.9 °C 22 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Oct after 31.7 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Oct after 31.9 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Oct after 32.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Oct after 32.9 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 48
18 Oct after 27.3 °C 44 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Oct after 30.0 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Oct after 32.2 °C 16 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
21 Oct after 17.2 °C 64 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Oct after 20.1 °C 32 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 2 Oct 2018
After · 19 Oct 2018

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 · 122Every 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 Mangwe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2018 and 12 October 2018: 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 3,823 hectares (38.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mangwe (2,078 ha, 0.4 %); Matobo (1,752 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.