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Chilubi fire, September 2016 Chilubi

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2016, 12:16 UTC

The fire started on 18 September 2016 in Chilubi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,104 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 78th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 40 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
10,104ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
18 Sept 2016 – 22 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Sept
2016
Heat detections
241
in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
49km/h · peak gust
18%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. Chilubi where it started
    10,169 ha reached on 18 Sept
    2.0 %

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)
18 Sept 34.1 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
19 Sept 31.8 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept 29.7 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Sept 30.8 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Sept 31.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Sept after 32.2 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Sept after 32.8 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Sept after 32.9 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Sept after 32.3 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Sept after 32.4 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Sept after 32.8 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
29 Sept after 33.3 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Sept after 33.1 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Oct after 33.1 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Oct after 34.6 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Sept 2016
After · 29 Sept 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 · 241Every 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 Chilubi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 September 2016 and 22 September 2016: 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 10,104 hectares (101.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chilubi (10,169 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 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 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.