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Mwenezi fire, September 2018 Mwenezi

Out · last detection 19 Sept 2018, 22:54 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2018 in Mwenezi, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,401 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 4th largest in Masvingo since 2016 (of 96 with a page). Number 15 in Zimbabwe in 2018, of 265.

Burnt area
5,401ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
15 Sept 2018 – 19 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Sept
2018
Heat detections
196
in a single hotspot: 104 MW
Danger at start
59
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept19 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

40°high
44km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

17% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 899 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mwenezi where it started
    5,442 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.4 %

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)
15 Sept 38.2 °C 4 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Sept 32.9 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept 36.7 °C 11 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Sept 39.8 °C 6 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
19 Sept 39.3 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Sept after 25.5 °C 34 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Sept after 27.1 °C 45 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm High 35
22 Sept after 33.8 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Sept after 31.3 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Sept after 33.6 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Sept after 34.2 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Sept after 37.7 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Sept after 34.1 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Sept after 35.9 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Sept after 31.4 °C 29 % 62 km/h 0.9 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2018
After · 26 Sept 2018

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 · 196Every 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 Mwenezi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2018 and 19 September 2018: 5 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 5,401 hectares (54.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mwenezi (5,442 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.8 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.

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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.