Burned area
satellite only5,961ha
Union of 2 GWIS (Copernicus) perimeters: overlapping areas count once.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 4 Oct 2022 – 16 Oct 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
ZW · Zimbabwe · –
Murehwa fire, 4 October 2022 Murehwa, Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe
Out · last detection 16 Oct 2022, 22:54 UTC
The fire started on 4 October 2022 in Murehwa, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,961 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Mashonaland East since 2016 (of 108 with a page). Number 23 in Zimbabwe in 2022, of 346.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-27matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only13days
4 Oct 2022 to 16 Oct 2022: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 16 Oct 2022, 22:54 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only4 Oct 2022
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 4 Oct 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only177
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 77 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 4 Oct 2022 – 16 Oct 2022
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only1,485MW
Total radiative power on 9 October 2022; hotspots that day: 62.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 9 Oct 2022
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model41.5FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 4 Oct 2022, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model32.8°C · 20% RH
High of 32.8 °C and minimum humidity of 20% on 4 October 2022; gusts of 55 km/h on 8 October 2022.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 4 Oct 2022 – 16 Oct 2022
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
Living inside
model≈ 4,200people
Estimated residents inside the perimeter and 35 ha of built-up area (100 m grid, epoch 2020).
- Source
- GHSL R2023A · JRC
- Date
- calculated on 24 October 2026
+− cross-check
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 10 October 2022 → 16 October 2022.
-
logStart date: 6 October 2022 → 4 October 2022.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 27 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 5,962 ha
- Dates
- 4 Oct 2022 – 16 Oct 2022
- Name
- Murehwa
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/murehwa-2022-10?v=2026-10-27A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire murehwa-2022-10.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-10-04 | 1 | 2 | 32.8 | 15.5 | 20 | 15.8 | 32 | 0 | 41.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2022-10-05 | 2 | 1 | 31.5 | 18.6 | 22 | 21 | 45 | 0 | 47.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2022-10-06 | 3 | 11 | 30.9 | 18.3 | 20 | 21.8 | 44.6 | 0 | 48.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2022-10-07 | 7 | 23 | 32.6 | 17.2 | 12 | 21.3 | 43.9 | 0 | 54.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-10-08 | 66 | 663 | 30 | 18.1 | 22 | 27.2 | 55.1 | 0 | 58.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-10-09 | 62 | 1,485 | 31.2 | 16.9 | 16 | 21.3 | 46.4 | 0 | 51.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-10-10 | 27 | 289 | 31.8 | 14.9 | 18 | 27.1 | 53.6 | 0 | 59.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-10-11 | 2 | 10 | 29.8 | 16.6 | 21 | 21.1 | 43.2 | 0 | 51.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-10-12 | 0 | 0 | 29.8 | 15.7 | 21 | 18.6 | 41 | 0 | 48.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2022-10-13 | 2 | 4 | 30.7 | 15.2 | 23 | 17.9 | 40.7 | 0 | 47.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2022-10-14 | 1 | 4 | 31.1 | 17.3 | 20 | 14.8 | 34.9 | 0 | 44.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2022-10-15 | 3 | 5 | 31.4 | 16.8 | 23 | 16.9 | 34.2 | 0 | 46.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2022-10-16 | 1 | 1 | 29.9 | 17.4 | 26 | 21.9 | 46.4 | 0 | 49.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2022-10-17 | 0 | 0 | 29.3 | 15.8 | 25 | 18.1 | 40.3 | 0 | 44.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2022-10-18 | 0 | 0 | 29.5 | 16.4 | 26 | 16 | 37.1 | 0 | 42.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2022-10-19 | 0 | 0 | 29.5 | 17 | 26 | 16.9 | 37.8 | 0 | 43.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2022-10-20 | 0 | 0 | 28.5 | 16.7 | 31 | 18.8 | 39.6 | 0 | 41.6 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2022-10-21 | 0 | 0 | 28.9 | 17.4 | 29 | 16.2 | 36 | 0 | 39.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2022-10-22 | 0 | 0 | 29.9 | 17.7 | 29 | 19.2 | 41.8 | 0 | 42.5 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2022-10-23 | 0 | 0 | 30.7 | 19.1 | 29 | 18.4 | 39.6 | 0.1 | 41.9 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2022-10-24 | 0 | 0 | 30.8 | 18.8 | 29 | 16.5 | 37.1 | 0 | 40.3 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2022-10-25 | 0 | 0 | 30.3 | 19.1 | 32 | 16.5 | 37.1 | 0.3 | 39.5 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2022-10-26 | 0 | 0 | 33.6 | 19.9 | 27 | 13.3 | 31.3 | 0.7 | 34.6 | alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 5,961ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 4 Oct 2022 – 16 Oct 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 4 Oct
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 177
- in a single hotspot: 77 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 208MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
4 Oct16 Oct
16 Oct 2022
How it evolved, day by day
4 Oct
9 Oct
14 Oct
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
33°high
55km/h · peak gust
12%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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Murehwa where it started4,727 ha reached on 4 Oct1.3 %
-
1,263 ha reached on 8 Oct0.5 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Built-up area35 ha
Residents≈ 4,200
Inside the perimeter there were about 35 hectares of built-up land and about 4,200 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 63 % of the area in Zimbabwe
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Oct | 32.8 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Oct | 31.5 °C | 22 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Oct | 30.9 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 7 Oct | 32.6 °C | 12 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 8 Oct | 30.0 °C | 22 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 9 Oct | 31.2 °C | 16 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Oct | 31.8 °C | 18 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 11 Oct | 29.8 °C | 21 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 12 Oct | 29.8 °C | 21 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 13 Oct | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 14 Oct | 31.1 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 15 Oct | 31.4 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 16 Oct | 29.9 °C | 26 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Oct after | 29.3 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 18 Oct after | 29.5 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 19 Oct after | 29.5 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 20 Oct after | 28.5 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Oct after | 28.9 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Oct after | 29.9 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Oct after | 30.7 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Oct after | 30.8 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Oct after | 30.3 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Oct after | 33.6 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 35 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 41.5, a minimum humidity of 20% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 19.
FWI at the start
41.5
Minimum humidity
20 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Murehwa fire, 4 October 2022
5,961 ha
13 days
FWI 41.5
Min. humidity 20 %
Centenary/ Muzarabani fire, September 2018
1,216 ha
5 days
FWI 40.2
Min. humidity 20 %
116 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mount Darwin fire, September 2022
1,158 ha
3 days
FWI 44.0
Min. humidity 20 %
75 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Makonde fire, October 2023
1,560 ha
2 days
FWI 42.0
Min. humidity 20 %
206 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 6.3 mm on 17 Oct.
Chegutu fire, August 2018
1,045 ha
2 days
FWI 40.6
Min. humidity 19 %
129 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mbire fire, September 2017
2,785 ha
7 days
FWI 41.1
Min. humidity 20 %
217 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 3 days
- median duration
- 1,493 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 4.2 mm
- rain at the end (median; 2 of 19 had it)
It was 4.0 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 13 days, against 3 days.
None of its 19 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 17 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.2 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
55km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 16 Oct, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 2 of 19, with a median of 4.2 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 27 Sept 2022
After · 23 Oct 2022
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 12 October 2022 the air beside the fire reached 62 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak62 µg/m³
Days over the guideline10 days
PM1090 µg/m³
Optical depth1.12
WHO 15
4 Oct6 Oct8 Oct10 Oct12 Oct
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 · 177Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 2,093 haShamva14 September 2018 · 10 days · 21 km away
- 1,968 haShamvaOctober 2016 · 3 days · 24 km away
- 2,449 haBindura13 October 2026 · 12 days · 29 km away
- 1,960 haShamva11 September 2018 · 6 days · 29 km away
- 2,082 haBinduraSeptember 2023 · 9 days · 30 km away
- 1,872 haShamva28 September 2022 · 6 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Murehwa fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 October 2022 to 16 October 2022 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 6 October 2022 to 10 October 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,961 hectares (59.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Murehwa (4,727 ha, 1.3 %); Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe (1,263 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 19. Their median duration was 3 days and their median area 1,493 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 19 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 17 of 19, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.2 mm.
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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 10 October 2022 → 16 October 2022.
- Start date: 6 October 2022 → 4 October 2022.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 6 October 2022 to 10 October 2022. 177 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.