Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Chilubi fire, 13 October 2016 Chilubi, Luwingu

Out · last detection 20 Oct 2016, 11:52 UTC

The fire started on 13 October 2016 in Chilubi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,741 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 426th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 163 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
3,741ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
13 Oct 2016 – 20 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
13 Oct
2016
Heat detections
113
in a single hotspot: 73 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Oct20 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1314151617181920

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
46km/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. Chilubi where it started
    2,641 ha reached on 13 Oct
    0.5 %
  2. Luwingu
    1,122 ha reached on 13 Oct
    0.2 %

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)
13 Oct 33.7 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Oct 33.5 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Oct 33.3 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Oct 34.3 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Oct 35.3 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Oct 34.6 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Oct 33.1 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Oct 32.9 °C 16 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Oct after 33.6 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Oct after 34.1 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Oct after 35.2 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Oct after 35.2 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Oct after 34.9 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Oct after 34.6 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Oct after 33.9 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Oct after 33.9 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Oct after 34.2 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Oct after 33.2 °C 25 % 27 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 · 6 Oct 2016
After · 27 Oct 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 · 113Every 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 13 October 2016 and 20 October 2016: 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 3,741 hectares (37.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chilubi (2,641 ha, 0.5 %); Luwingu (1,122 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.