Mount Darwin fire, 10 October 2022 Mount Darwin
The fire started on 10 October 2022 in Mount Darwin, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,800 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 17th largest in Mashonaland Central since 2016 (of 332 with a page). Number 58 in Zimbabwe in 2022, of 346.
- Burnt area
- 2,800ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 10 Oct 2022 – 10 Oct 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 10 Oct
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 75
- in a single hotspot: 83 MW
- Danger at start
- 54
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.9GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 495 ha in 2018, 346 ha in 2019, 1,491 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,927 ha that had burned before.
- 1,491 ha Mount Darwin fire, October 2021 2,164 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 495 ha Mount Darwin fire, September 2018 1,783 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 346 ha Mount Darwin fire, October 2019 2,299 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mount Darwin where it started2,817 ha reached on 7 Oct0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Oct | 31.7 °C | 21 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 11 Oct after | 30.1 °C | 25 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 12 Oct after | 30.0 °C | 23 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 13 Oct after | 31.2 °C | 26 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 14 Oct after | 31.3 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 15 Oct after | 32.0 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Oct after | 30.5 °C | 26 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 17 Oct after | 30.0 °C | 28 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 18 Oct after | 29.7 °C | 31 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 19 Oct after | 28.9 °C | 35 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Oct after | 28.5 °C | 42 % | 42 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 35 |
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 · 75Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,780 haCentenary/ Muzarabani26 September 2020 · 3 days · 14 km away
- 4,340 haCentenary/ Muzarabani26 September 2020 · 3 days · 20 km away
- 3,220 haCentenary/ Muzarabani8 October 2016 · 3 days · 27 km away
- 2,478 haCentenary/ MuzarabaniSeptember 2026 · 3 days · 28 km away
- 2,531 haMount Darwin28 September 2022 · 3 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mount Darwin fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 October 2022 and 10 October 2022: 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 2,800 hectares (28.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mount Darwin (2,817 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.