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ZM · Zambia · →

Chembe fire, 10 August 2019 Chembe, Milengi

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2019, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2019 in Chembe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,239 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 483th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 219 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.

Burnt area
3,239ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
10 Aug 2019 – 14 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
10 Aug
2019
Heat detections
85
in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
740MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
48km/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

94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,520 ha in 2016, 1,798 ha in 2017, 2,194 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,040 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chembe where it started
    3,039 ha reached on 6 Aug
    1.4 %
  2. Milengi
    222 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
10 Aug 28.3 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Aug 28.3 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
12 Aug 29.1 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Aug 30.8 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Aug 29.3 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Aug after 27.6 °C 22 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Aug after 26.8 °C 26 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Aug after 27.1 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Aug after 27.9 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug after 26.6 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Aug after 27.7 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Aug after 27.0 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Aug after 25.4 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug after 26.2 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Aug after 28.5 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2019
After · 21 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 · 85Every 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 10 August 2019 and 14 August 2019: 5 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 3,239 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chembe (3,039 ha, 1.4 %); Milengi (222 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % 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.