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Chipili fire, 9 August 2016 Chipili

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2016, 11:20 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2016 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 31,556 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 36th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 8 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
31,556ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
9 Aug 2016 – 23 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Aug
2016
Heat detections
1,432
in a single hotspot: 132 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
12.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug23 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131415161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
60km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Chipili where it started
    31,748 ha reached on 9 Aug
    7.4 %

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)
9 Aug 27.4 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Aug 26.9 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Aug 26.0 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Aug 28.5 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Aug 29.3 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Aug 29.3 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Aug 29.1 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Aug 28.6 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Aug 26.9 °C 28 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Aug 27.5 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Aug 28.9 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Aug 29.9 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Aug 31.2 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug 31.1 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Aug 30.3 °C 15 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Aug after 26.9 °C 29 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Aug after 27.1 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug after 27.2 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Aug after 27.7 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Aug after 27.7 °C 22 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Aug after 27.9 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug after 27.9 °C 21 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug after 28.2 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Sept after 27.6 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Sept after 27.3 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Sept after 28.8 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Sept after 29.7 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Sept after 30.6 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Sept after 30.5 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Sept after 30.9 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Sept after 31.8 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept after 31.6 °C 20 % 37 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 · 2 Aug 2016
After · 30 Aug 2016

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 · 1,432Every 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 Chipili fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 August 2016 and 23 August 2016: 15 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 31,556 hectares (315.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chipili (31,748 ha, 7.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.