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Chembe fire, 4 August 2021 Chembe, Milengi, Mansa

Out · last detection 12 Aug 2021, 11:07 UTC

The fire started on 4 August 2021 in Chembe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,510 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 156th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 36 in Zambia in 2021, of 213.

Burnt area
8,510ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
4 Aug 2021 – 11 Aug 2021
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
4 Aug
2021
Heat detections
299
in a single hotspot: 81 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Aug 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Aug11 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

56789101112

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
41km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,247 ha in 2016, 5,691 ha in 2017, 3,435 ha in 2018, 5,440 ha in 2019, 5,684 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,285 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chembe where it started
    8,306 ha reached on 5 Aug
    3.8 %
  2. Milengi
    169 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.0 %
  3. Mansa
    82 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)
4 Aug 24.5 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Aug 24.8 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Aug 26.2 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Aug 26.1 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Aug 26.0 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Aug 25.9 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Aug 26.8 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Aug 24.9 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Aug after 25.9 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Aug after 27.3 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Aug after 26.1 °C 29 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Aug after 25.6 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Aug after 24.4 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Aug after 26.5 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Aug after 27.6 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Aug after 28.9 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Aug after 29.0 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Aug after 28.6 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Jul 2021
After · 18 Aug 2021

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 · 299Every 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 4 August 2021 and 11 August 2021: 8 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 8,510 hectares (85.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Chembe (8,306 ha, 3.8 %); Milengi (169 ha, 0.0 %); Mansa (82 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.8 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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.