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Chama fire, 17 September 2020 Chama

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2020, 10:48 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2020 in Chama, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,997 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 324th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 143 in Zambia in 2020, of 229.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,997ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
17 Sept 2020 – 26 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 Sept
2020
Heat detections
109
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
576MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept26 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
40km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,116 ha in 2016, 1,329 ha in 2018, 288 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,085 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chama where it started
    4,025 ha reached on 16 Sept
    0.2 %

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 Sept 35.9 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Sept 33.9 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept 33.5 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Sept 34.2 °C 23 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Sept 34.8 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Sept 35.0 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Sept 31.3 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Sept 32.0 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Sept 34.2 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Sept 35.7 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Sept after 36.9 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Sept after 36.4 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Sept after 35.7 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Sept after 35.8 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Oct after 35.9 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Oct after 37.3 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Oct after 37.3 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Oct after 36.9 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Oct after 37.5 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Oct after 36.9 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2020
After · 3 Oct 2020

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 · 109Every 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 17 September 2020 and 26 September 2020: 10 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 3,997 hectares (40.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chama (4,025 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.