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Chembe fire, 28 July 2016 Chembe

Out · last detection 10 Aug 2016, 12:23 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2016 in Chembe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 12,378 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 108th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 30 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
12,378ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
28 Jul 2016 – 10 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
28 Jul
2016
Heat detections
488
in a single hotspot: 140 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul10 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2829303112345678910

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
48km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Chembe where it started
    12,456 ha reached on 24 Jul
    5.7 %

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)
28 Jul 28.5 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Jul 28.3 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Jul 27.5 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Jul 26.7 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Aug 27.9 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Aug 28.3 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Aug 27.2 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Aug 27.2 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Aug 25.3 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Aug 24.3 °C 31 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Aug 24.6 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Aug 25.8 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Aug 27.0 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Aug 25.1 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Aug after 26.1 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Aug after 27.0 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Aug after 27.4 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Aug after 28.7 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Aug after 28.7 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Aug after 27.6 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Aug after 26.1 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Aug after 26.8 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Aug after 28.1 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Aug after 29.1 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jul 2016
After · 17 Aug 2016

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 · 488Every 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 Chembe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 July 2016 and 10 August 2016: 14 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 12,378 hectares (123.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chembe (12,456 ha, 5.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.

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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.