Umguza fire, August 2019 Umguza
The fire started on 17 August 2019 in Umguza, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,360 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 91th largest in Matabeleland North since 2016 (of 487 with a page). Number 29 in Zimbabwe in 2019, of 282.
- Burnt area
- 4,360ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 17 Aug 2019 – 22 Aug 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Aug
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 124
- in a single hotspot: 110 MW
- Danger at start
- 60
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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
52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,312 ha in 2017.
- 1,797 ha Umguza fire, October 2017 7,141 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 346 ha Umguza fire, September 2017 1,006 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 169 ha Umguza fire, September 2017 1,200 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Umguza where it started4,380 ha reached on 17 Aug0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Aug | 29.6 °C | 6 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 18 Aug | 25.6 °C | 20 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 19 Aug | 26.7 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Aug | 27.1 °C | 16 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 21 Aug | 22.9 °C | 28 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 22 Aug | 23.6 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Aug after | 25.6 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 24 Aug after | 25.7 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Aug after | 29.1 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Aug after | 31.8 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Aug after | 31.0 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Aug after | 31.7 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 30 Aug after | 32.2 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 1 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 6 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
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 · 124Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,141 haUmguza15 October 2017 · 4 days · 2 km away
- 5,958 haUmguza12 September 2017 · 6 days · 13 km away
- 5,420 haUmguza 18 October 2026 · 6 days · 13 km away
- 6,867 haUmguza7 October 2022 · 11 days · 14 km away
- 10,329 haUmguza19 September 2019 · 5 days · 29 km away
- 8,255 haUmguzaOctober 2021 · 5 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Umguza fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2019 and 22 August 2019: 6 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 4,360 hectares (43.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Umguza (4,380 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.