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Chiengi fire, July 2016 Chiengi

Out · last detection 31 Jul 2016, 23:16 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2016 in Chiengi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,850 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 373th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 155 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
3,850ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
25 Jul 2016 – 31 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
25 Jul
2016
Heat detections
90
in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
568MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul31 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293031

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
35km/h · peak gust
16%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. Chiengi where it started
    3,874 ha reached on 19 Jul
    1.0 %

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)
25 Jul 28.9 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Jul 29.4 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Jul 29.7 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Jul 31.0 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Jul 30.2 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Jul 29.1 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Jul 29.5 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug after 30.1 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Aug after 30.2 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Aug after 29.8 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Aug after 29.2 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Aug after 28.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Aug after 27.2 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Aug after 27.6 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Aug after 28.4 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Aug after 29.1 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Aug after 29.0 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jul 2016
After · 7 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 · 90Every 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 Chiengi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 July 2016 and 31 July 2016: 7 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 3,850 hectares (38.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chiengi (3,874 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.