Chama fire, August 2018 Chama
The fire started on 4 August 2018 in Chama, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,707 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 92th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 30 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.
- Burnt area
- 9,707ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 16days
- 4 Aug 2018 – 19 Aug 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 4 Aug
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 316
- in a single hotspot: 132 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.7GW
- 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
53% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,622 ha in 2016, 2,575 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,181 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Chama where it started9,773 ha reached on 4 Aug0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Aug | 30.1 °C | 25 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 5 Aug | 30.7 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Aug | 32.0 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Aug | 31.3 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 8 Aug | 33.0 °C | 25 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Aug | 33.0 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 10 Aug | 32.1 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Aug | 31.4 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 12 Aug | 31.1 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 13 Aug | 30.5 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Aug | 31.0 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Aug | 30.8 °C | 29 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 16 Aug | 30.6 °C | 22 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Aug | 31.2 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 18 Aug | 31.3 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Aug | 31.0 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 20 Aug after | 30.5 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Aug after | 30.7 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Aug after | 32.6 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Aug after | 32.6 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Aug after | 31.7 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Aug after | 33.0 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Aug after | 30.9 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 · 316Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chama fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 August 2018 and 19 August 2018: 16 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 9,707 hectares (97.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chama (9,773 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zambia (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 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.