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Chilubi fire, July 2023 Chilubi, Lupososhi, Luwingu

Out · last detection 19 Jul 2023, 12:11 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2023 in Chilubi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,373 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 316th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 80 in Zambia in 2023, of 165.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.4 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
4,373ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
15 Jul 2023 – 19 Jul 2023
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
15 Jul
2023
Heat detections
112
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
722MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jul 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul19 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
32km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 770 ha in 2016, 910 ha in 2017, 1,237 ha in 2018, 1,716 ha in 2019, 629 ha in 2020, 1,113 ha in 2021, 1,831 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,808 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chilubi where it started
    2,206 ha reached on 15 Jul
    0.4 %
  2. Lupososhi
    1,296 ha reached on 15 Jul
    0.3 %
  3. Luwingu
    896 ha reached on 15 Jul
    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)
15 Jul 25.4 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Jul 25.2 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Jul 25.5 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jul 25.7 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
19 Jul 26.8 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Jul after 27.5 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Jul after 27.1 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Jul after 27.0 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Jul after 26.4 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Jul after 26.7 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Jul after 27.6 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Jul after 26.2 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Jul after 26.2 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Jul after 26.6 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Jul after 27.9 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jul 2023
After · 26 Jul 2023

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 · 112Every 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 15 July 2023 and 19 July 2023: 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 4,373 hectares (43.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Chilubi (2,206 ha, 0.4 %); Lupososhi (1,296 ha, 0.3 %); Luwingu (896 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.8 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.