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Umguza fire, 2 September 2018 Umguza

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2018, 12:08 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2018 in Umguza, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,249 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 69th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 484 with a page). Number 18 in Zimbabwe in 2018, of 265.

Burnt area
5,249ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
2 Sept 2018 – 6 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
2 Sept
2018
Heat detections
161
in a single hotspot: 132 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept6 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

234567

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
48km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 53 days 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.

What happened to each town

  1. Umguza where it started
    5,283 ha reached on 2 Sept
    0.9 %

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)
2 Sept 28.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Sept 31.4 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Sept 31.5 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Sept 31.9 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Sept 31.5 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Sept after 32.2 °C 18 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Sept after 30.7 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 50
9 Sept after 24.3 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Sept after 24.3 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Sept after 27.8 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept after 31.6 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept after 32.1 °C 10 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Sept after 33.5 °C 7 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Sept after 33.7 °C 7 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Sept after 34.5 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Aug 2018
After · 13 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 · 161Every 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 Umguza fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 September 2018 and 6 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 5,249 hectares (52.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Umguza (5,283 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.