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Chembe fire, July 2019 Chembe

Out · last detection 7 Aug 2019, 11:07 UTC

The fire started on 26 July 2019 in Chembe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,472 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 433th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 198 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.

Burnt area
3,472ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
26 Jul 2019 – 7 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Jul
2019
Heat detections
127
in a single hotspot: 36 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
862MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jul7 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

262728293031134567

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
44km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,472 ha in 2016, 868 ha in 2017, 1,179 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,291 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chembe where it started
    3,493 ha reached on 25 Jul
    1.6 %

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)
26 Jul 25.8 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jul 24.5 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Jul 25.2 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jul 26.3 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Jul 26.7 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Jul 26.9 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Aug 28.1 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Aug 28.2 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Aug 27.4 °C 43 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Aug 28.4 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
5 Aug 29.7 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Aug 29.3 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Aug 30.3 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Aug after 30.0 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Aug after 29.7 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Aug after 27.1 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Aug after 27.1 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Aug after 27.9 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Aug after 29.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Aug after 27.8 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Aug after 26.2 °C 23 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Aug after 25.4 °C 27 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Aug after 25.8 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jul 2019
After · 14 Aug 2019

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 · 127Every 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 26 July 2019 and 7 August 2019: 13 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 3,472 hectares (34.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chembe (3,493 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.