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Matobo fire, July 2026 Matobo

Out · last detection 31 Jul 2026, 23:56 UTC

The fire started on 31 July 2026 in Matobo, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,123 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 163th largest in Matabeleland South since 2016 (of 203 with a page). Number 277 in Zimbabwe in 2026, of 370.

Burnt area
1,123ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
31 Jul 2026 – 31 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
31 Jul
2026
Heat detections
30
in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
481MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Jul31 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

31

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

The weather it burned in

21°high
39km/h · peak gust
39%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 340 ha in 2017, 741 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 886 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Matobo where it started
    1,124 ha reached on 31 Jul
    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)
31 Jul 20.8 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Aug after 18.2 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Aug after 21.2 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Aug after 22.6 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Aug after 24.0 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Aug after 24.7 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Aug after 24.6 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Aug after 22.6 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Aug after 21.7 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Aug after 24.9 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Aug after 26.9 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Jul 2026
After · 7 Aug 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 31 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 18 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak18 µg/m³
Days over the guideline0 days
PM1018 µg/m³
Optical depth0.17
293031123
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 30Every 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 Matobo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 July 2026 and 31 July 2026: 1 day 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 1,123 hectares (11.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Matobo (1,124 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 20.8 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class 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.

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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.