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Chilubi fire, July 2019 Chilubi, Lupososhi

Out · last detection 17 Jul 2019, 11:01 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2019 in Chilubi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,726 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 434th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 175 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,726ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
14 Jul 2019 – 16 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Jul
2019
Heat detections
63
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
497MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul16 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

14151617

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
38km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,172 ha in 2016, 1,883 ha in 2017, 2,036 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,870 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chilubi where it started
    3,210 ha reached on 14 Jul
    0.6 %
  2. Lupososhi
    536 ha reached on 14 Jul
    0.1 %

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)
14 Jul 26.4 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Jul 25.6 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Jul 25.5 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Jul after 25.3 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Jul after 25.0 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Jul after 25.7 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Jul after 26.9 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
21 Jul after 27.3 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Jul after 24.5 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Jul after 24.8 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Jul after 26.3 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Jul after 27.2 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Jul after 25.9 °C 25 % 38 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 · 7 Jul 2019
After · 23 Jul 2019

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 · 63Every 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 14 July 2019 and 16 July 2019: 3 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 3,726 hectares (37.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chilubi (3,210 ha, 0.6 %); Lupososhi (536 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.4 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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.