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Chiengi fire, July 2017 Chiengi

Out · last detection 5 Aug 2017, 11:33 UTC

The fire started on 29 July 2017 in Chiengi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,028 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 523th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 226 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
3,028ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
29 Jul 2017 – 5 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
29 Jul
2017
Heat detections
101
in a single hotspot: 53 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jul5 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2930312345

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
40km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,251 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Chiengi where it started
    3,046 ha reached on 26 Jul
    0.8 %

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)
29 Jul 28.3 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Jul 29.0 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Jul 29.4 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Aug 29.9 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Aug 29.9 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Aug 29.5 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Aug 29.7 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Aug 30.9 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Aug after 30.5 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Aug after 30.0 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Aug after 29.5 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Aug after 29.5 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Aug after 28.4 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Aug after 29.3 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Aug after 29.5 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Aug after 30.0 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Aug after 31.0 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Aug after 30.4 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jul 2017
After · 12 Aug 2017

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 · 101Every 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 29 July 2017 and 5 August 2017: 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 3,028 hectares (30.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chiengi (3,046 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.