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Mount Darwin fire, 14 September 2017 Mount Darwin, Shamva

Out · last detection 17 Sept 2017, 22:34 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2017 in Mount Darwin, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,764 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Mashonaland Central since 2016 (of 334 with a page). Number 34 in Zimbabwe in 2017, of 238.

Burnt area
3,764ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
14 Sept 2017 – 17 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Sept
2017
Heat detections
123
in a single hotspot: 47 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

14151617

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
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Mount Darwin where it started
    3,567 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.8 %
  2. Shamva
    222 ha reached on 16 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
14 Sept 33.2 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Sept 31.5 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept 31.6 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Sept 34.1 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept after 30.7 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept after 30.7 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Sept after 31.0 °C 38 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Sept after 30.6 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Sept after 31.2 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Sept after 33.9 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Sept after 29.0 °C 39 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Sept after 31.1 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Sept after 34.9 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Sept after 35.1 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2017
After · 24 Sept 2017

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 · 123Every 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 Mount Darwin fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 September 2017 and 17 September 2017: 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 3,764 hectares (37.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mount Darwin (3,567 ha, 0.8 %); Shamva (222 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.

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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.