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Chikwawa fire, September 2018 Chikwawa

Out · last detection 13 Oct 2018, 10:53 UTC

The fire started on 29 September 2018 in Chikwawa, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,003 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 3th largest in Southern Region since 2016 (of 104 with a page). The largest in Malawi in 2018, of 73.

Burnt area
9,003ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
29 Sept 2018 – 12 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
29 Sept
2018
Heat detections
405
in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Sept12 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

29303456789101213

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
60km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,808 ha in 2016, 4,155 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,396 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chikwawa where it started
    9,041 ha reached on 27 Sept
    1.8 %

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 Sept 34.9 °C 22 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Sept 27.8 °C 47 % 60 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 21
1 Oct 26.5 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.8 mm High 24
2 Oct 30.3 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Oct 34.0 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
4 Oct 33.0 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Oct 28.1 °C 41 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Oct 29.4 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Oct 29.3 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Oct 28.5 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
9 Oct 30.3 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Oct 30.9 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Oct 33.6 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
12 Oct 34.5 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
13 Oct after 34.6 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Oct after 33.0 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
15 Oct after 36.8 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Oct after 36.2 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Oct after 36.0 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
18 Oct after 37.5 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Oct after 30.9 °C 44 % 43 km/h 0.7 mm High 32
20 Oct after 30.9 °C 47 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Oct after 26.7 °C 40 % 58 km/h 0.8 mm High 34
22 Oct after 24.3 °C 44 % 55 km/h 0.1 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Sept 2018
After · 19 Oct 2018

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 · 405Every 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 Malawi ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chikwawa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 September 2018 and 12 October 2018: 14 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 9,003 hectares (90.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chikwawa (9,041 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Malawi (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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.