Umzingwane fire, September 2022 Umzingwane
The fire started on 5 September 2022 in Umzingwane, Zimbabwe, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,856 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 7th largest in Matabeleland South since 2016 (of 203 with a page). Number 29 in Zimbabwe in 2022, of 346.
- Burnt area
- 4,856ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 5 Sept 2022 – 7 Sept 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 153
- in a single hotspot: 53 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 864 ha in 2018, 7 ha in 2019.
What happened to each town
-
Umzingwane where it started4,875 ha reached on 5 Sept1.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 32.8 °C | 6 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 6 Sept | 27.3 °C | 18 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 7 Sept | 21.8 °C | 47 % | 46 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 27 |
| 8 Sept after | 25.7 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Sept after | 28.2 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 10 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 10 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Sept after | 31.5 °C | 5 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 12 Sept after | 32.2 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 13 Sept after | 23.4 °C | 40 % | 49 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Sept after | 22.2 °C | 46 % | 50 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Sept after | 25.0 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Sept after | 29.7 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
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 · 153Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,431 haUmzingwane19 September 2026 · 9 days · 2 km away
- 3,913 haUmzingwane3 September 2026 · 2 days · 11 km away
- 4,920 haInsizaAugust 2026 · 5 days · 25 km away
- 3,862 haInsiza12 September 2026 · 4 days · 31 km away
- 3,362 haMatobo3 August 2018 · 6 days · 38 km away
- 7,113 haInsiza15 September 2018 · 5 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Umzingwane fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2022 and 7 September 2022: 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 4,856 hectares (48.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Umzingwane (4,875 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °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.