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Chilubi fire, 14 September 2021 Chilubi

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2021, 23:29 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2021 in Chilubi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,893 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 98th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 32 in Zambia in 2021, of 213.

Burnt area
8,893ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
14 Sept 2021 – 24 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Sept
2021
Heat detections
319
in a single hotspot: 230 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept24 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819202122232425

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
47km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.5 mm on 3 Oct.

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,481 ha in 2016, 4,695 ha in 2017, 2,080 ha in 2018, 4,556 ha in 2019, 4,461 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,276 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chilubi where it started
    8,950 ha reached on 14 Sept
    1.7 %

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)
14 Sept 32.5 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Sept 32.3 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Sept 33.8 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Sept 34.2 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Sept 33.1 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
19 Sept 30.9 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept 31.3 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Sept 33.5 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Sept 31.3 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
23 Sept 30.7 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Sept 31.5 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Sept after 31.5 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Sept after 31.2 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Sept after 31.6 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Sept after 33.3 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Sept after 33.8 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Sept after 34.4 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Oct after 32.3 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Oct after 32.9 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Oct after 31.8 °C 37 % 24 km/h 4.5 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2021
After · 1 Oct 2021

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 · 319Every 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 September 2021 and 24 September 2021: 11 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 8,893 hectares (88.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chilubi (8,950 ha, 1.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.