Mount Darwin fire, 18 October 2026 Mount Darwin
The fire started on 18 October 2026 in Mount Darwin, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,111 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 252th largest in Mashonaland Central since 2016 (of 332 with a page). Number 284 in Zimbabwe in 2026, of 370.
The power measured by the satellite is low (22.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,111ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 18 Oct 2026 – 20 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 18 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 13
- in a single hotspot: 23 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 132MW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 113 ha in 2018, 682 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 662 ha that had burned before.
- 658 ha Mount Darwin fire, October 2022 1,335 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 113 ha Mount Darwin fire, September 2018 1,320 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 24 ha Mount Darwin fire, September 2022 2,531 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mount Darwin where it started1,119 ha reached on 18 Oct0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Oct | 33.6 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Oct | 34.8 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Oct | 37.2 °C | 15 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Oct after | 37.2 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 20 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 36 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 13Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,128 haMount Darwin21 September 2021 · 2 days · 5 km away
- 2,531 haMount Darwin28 September 2022 · 3 days · 5 km away
- 3,499 haMount Darwin31 August 2026 · 8 days · 8 km away
- 3,335 haMount Darwin5 September 2019 · 2 days · 15 km away
- 3,764 haMount Darwin14 September 2017 · 4 days · 19 km away
- 2,299 haMount Darwin21 October 2019 · 2 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mount Darwin fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 October 2026 and 20 October 2026: 3 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 1,111 hectares (11.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mount Darwin (1,119 ha, 0.2 %).
- Is the Mount Darwin fire still active?
- No fire detections since 20 Oct 2026, 12:27 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.
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.