Chilubi fire, September 2024 Chilubi, Luwingu
The fire started on 10 September 2024 in Chilubi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 26,796 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 15th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 6 in Zambia in 2024, of 160.
- Burnt area
- 26,796ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 10 Sept 2024 – 20 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 10 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 912
- in a single hotspot: 111 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 13.6GW
- 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
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10,088 ha in 2016, 11,761 ha in 2017, 7,385 ha in 2018, 11,247 ha in 2019, 11,855 ha in 2020, 9,781 ha in 2021, 13,564 ha in 2022, 13,302 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 25,956 ha that had burned before.
- 5,748 ha Chilubi fire, September 2017 8,095 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,411 ha Chilubi fire, September 2023 7,463 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,699 ha Chilubi fire, September 2016 10,104 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,142 ha Chilubi fire, September 2021 8,893 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,096 ha Chilubi fire, September 2019 4,727 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,987 ha Chilubi fire, September 2020 6,376 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,918 ha Luwingu fire, September 2020 14,794 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,877 ha Chilubi fire, September 2022 4,547 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chilubi where it started14,843 ha reached on 11 Sept2.9 %
-
12,137 ha reached on 9 Sept2.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Sept | 32.1 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 11 Sept | 31.9 °C | 23 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Sept | 31.6 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Sept | 32.6 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Sept | 32.4 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 15 Sept | 31.7 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 16 Sept | 31.4 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Sept | 32.6 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 18 Sept | 32.6 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Sept | 32.7 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 20 Sept | 33.4 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 Sept after | 32.9 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 21 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 23 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 37 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Sept after | 27.9 °C | 39 % | 45 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 26 Sept after | 32.9 °C | 20 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Sept after | 34.2 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 19 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 20 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 56 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 912Every 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 10 September 2024 and 20 September 2024: 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 26,796 hectares (268.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chilubi (14,843 ha, 2.9 %); Luwingu (12,137 ha, 2.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 43 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.
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.