Chilubi fire, August 2023 Chilubi
The fire started on 20 August 2023 in Chilubi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,505 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 479th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 128 in Zambia in 2023, of 165.
- Burnt area
- 3,505ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 20 Aug 2023 – 27 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 20 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 123
- in a single hotspot: 46 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 719 ha in 2016, 1,493 ha in 2017, 2,310 ha in 2018, 1,104 ha in 2019, 1,068 ha in 2020, 1,880 ha in 2021, 2,602 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,435 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Chilubi where it started3,526 ha reached on 18 Aug0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Aug | 31.2 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 Aug | 31.8 °C | 26 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Aug | 32.3 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Aug | 31.8 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Aug | 31.8 °C | 22 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Aug | 31.2 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Aug | 32.4 °C | 26 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Aug | 32.5 °C | 14 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 28 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 37 % | 58 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Aug after | 23.2 °C | 44 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 30 Aug after | 26.9 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 31 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 1 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 29 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 2 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 3 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Sept after | 30.3 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Sept after | 30.6 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 6 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 123Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chilubi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 August 2023 and 27 August 2023: 8 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 3,505 hectares (35.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chilubi (3,526 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.
Report an error
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.