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Chama fire, September 2018 Chama, Shiwang'Andu

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2018, 11:39 UTC

The fire started on 18 September 2018 in Chama, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,262 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 31th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 11 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Burnt area
21,262ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
18 Sept 2018 – 29 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
18 Sept
2018
Heat detections
1,095
in a single hotspot: 108 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
12.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Sept29 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324252627282930

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
44km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

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: 9,365 ha in 2016, 5,394 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,318 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chama where it started
    13,829 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.8 %
  2. Shiwang'Andu
    7,555 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
18 Sept 31.7 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept 30.5 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept 30.7 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 46
21 Sept 29.9 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Sept 31.9 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Sept 30.8 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Sept 30.7 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Sept 31.2 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Sept 33.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Sept 33.0 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Sept 32.5 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Sept 32.7 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Sept after 29.6 °C 24 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Oct after 25.6 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 38
2 Oct after 28.2 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
3 Oct after 31.5 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.2 mm High 38
4 Oct after 32.8 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Oct after 30.4 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Oct after 30.3 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Oct after 31.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Oct after 30.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Oct after 30.1 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Sept 2018
After · 6 Oct 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 · 1,095Every 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 Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chama fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 September 2018 and 29 September 2018: 12 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 21,262 hectares (212.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chama (13,829 ha, 0.8 %); Shiwang'Andu (7,555 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 44 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 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.

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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 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.