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Chilubi fire, 17 September 2017 Chilubi

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2017, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2017 in Chilubi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,674 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 441th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 161 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
3,674ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
17 Sept 2017 – 21 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 Sept
2017
Heat detections
73
in a single hotspot: 97 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
699MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

17202122

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

The weather it burned in

33°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

48% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,765 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Chilubi where it started
    3,697 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.7 %

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)
17 Sept 33.0 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept 32.7 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Sept 32.5 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept 32.3 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Sept 32.4 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Sept after 31.5 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Sept after 32.0 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Sept after 31.5 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Sept after 32.7 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Sept after 32.5 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Sept after 32.7 °C 23 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Sept after 33.2 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Sept after 33.2 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Sept after 30.7 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Oct after 31.1 °C 25 % 43 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 · 10 Sept 2017
After · 28 Sept 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 · 73Every 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 17 September 2017 and 21 September 2017: 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 3,674 hectares (36.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chilubi (3,697 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.