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Chilubi fire, August 2018 Chilubi

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2018, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 6 August 2018 in Chilubi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,812 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 259th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 86 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Burnt area
4,812ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
6 Aug 2018 – 23 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
6 Aug
2018
Heat detections
173
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Aug23 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112131415161718192021222324

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
41km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,625 ha in 2016, 3,127 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,356 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chilubi where it started
    4,840 ha reached on 4 Aug
    0.9 %

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)
6 Aug 29.9 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Aug 30.1 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Aug 31.1 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Aug 31.1 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Aug 29.9 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Aug 29.9 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Aug 28.7 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Aug 28.5 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
14 Aug 28.4 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Aug 28.7 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Aug 28.3 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Aug 28.8 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Aug 29.3 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Aug 28.5 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Aug 28.5 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug 28.2 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Aug 30.1 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug 31.0 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Aug after 30.2 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Aug after 29.5 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug after 29.5 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Aug after 29.4 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Aug after 30.1 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Aug after 28.3 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
30 Aug after 28.2 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug after 28.5 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Sept after 29.6 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Sept after 30.0 °C 23 % 35 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 · 30 Jul 2018
After · 30 Aug 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 · 173Every 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 6 August 2018 and 23 August 2018: 18 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 4,812 hectares (48.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chilubi (4,840 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.