Mount Darwin fire, 5 September 2019 Mount Darwin, Shamva
The fire started on 5 September 2019 in Mount Darwin, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,335 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 14th largest in Mashonaland Central since 2016 (of 334 with a page). Number 42 in Zimbabwe in 2019, of 282.
- Burnt area
- 3,335ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 5 Sept 2019 – 6 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 88
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 961MW
- 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 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,642 ha in 2017, 177 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,560 ha that had burned before.
- 1,008 ha Mount Darwin fire, September 2017 3,764 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 634 ha Mount Darwin fire, September 2017 1,104 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 177 ha Shamva fire, August 2018 1,144 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mount Darwin where it started3,344 ha reached on 5 Sept0.7 %
-
15 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 30.0 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 6 Sept | 27.1 °C | 19 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 7 Sept after | 22.5 °C | 48 % | 58 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Sept after | 23.9 °C | 30 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 9 Sept after | 25.4 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 18 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 11 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 14 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Sept after | 33.8 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Sept after | 34.5 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 14 Sept after | 34.4 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 26 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 16 Sept after | 30.1 °C | 33 % | 41 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.
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 · 88Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,764 haMount Darwin14 September 2017 · 4 days · 5 km away
- 3,499 haMount Darwin31 August 2026 · 8 days · 10 km away
- 3,128 haMount Darwin21 September 2021 · 2 days · 15 km away
- 2,531 haMount Darwin28 September 2022 · 3 days · 18 km away
- 1,927 haMount Darwin22 October 2019 · 6 days · 23 km away
- 1,927 haShamva8 October 2022 · 6 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mount Darwin fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2019 and 6 September 2019: 2 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 3,335 hectares (33.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mount Darwin (3,344 ha, 0.7 %); Shamva (15 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.