Chama fire, 7 October 2022 Chama
The fire started on 7 October 2022 in Chama, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,254 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 126th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 44 in Zambia in 2022, of 235.
- Burnt area
- 8,254ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 7 Oct 2022 – 10 Oct 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Oct
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 257
- in a single hotspot: 144 MW
- Danger at start
- 58
- Extreme · 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
81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,828 ha in 2016, 509 ha in 2017, 3,062 ha in 2018, 644 ha in 2019, 3,375 ha in 2020, 524 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,724 ha that had burned before.
- 3,796 ha Chama fire, September 2016 8,230 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,365 ha Chama fire, September 2020 3,997 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,062 ha Chama fire, August 2018 9,707 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chama where it started8,310 ha reached on 4 Oct0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct | 34.5 °C | 18 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 8 Oct | 34.6 °C | 14 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 9 Oct | 32.7 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 10 Oct | 35.1 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 11 Oct after | 35.3 °C | 15 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 12 Oct after | 34.2 °C | 15 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 13 Oct after | 35.3 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Oct after | 35.5 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 15 Oct after | 35.8 °C | 13 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 16 Oct after | 35.5 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 17 Oct after | 35.7 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 18 Oct after | 35.9 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 19 Oct after | 36.8 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 20 Oct after | 35.1 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
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 · 257Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,358 haChama23 September 2016 · 14 days · 18 km away
- 17,411 haMpika26 September 2017 · 16 days · 29 km away
- 15,263 haChama6 September 2025 · 25 days · 31 km away
- 22,352 haMpika18 September 2020 · 12 days · 32 km away
- 12,069 haMpika7 August 2026 · 10 days · 36 km away
- 37,949 haMpika2 October 2016 · 24 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chama fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 October 2022 and 10 October 2022: 4 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 8,254 hectares (82.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chama (8,310 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.
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.