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Chipili fire, 19 August 2017 Chipili

Out · last detection 4 Sept 2017, 23:16 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2017 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,338 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 68th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 13 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
21,338ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
19 Aug 2017 – 3 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Aug
2017
Heat detections
992
in a single hotspot: 98 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
9.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug3 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324252627282930311234

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
53km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,102 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Chipili where it started
    21,465 ha reached on 19 Aug
    5.0 %

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)
19 Aug 29.7 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug 28.0 °C 30 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug 26.5 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Aug 27.8 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Aug 30.5 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Aug 31.1 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
25 Aug 30.8 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Aug 29.7 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Aug 29.5 °C 23 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Aug 28.4 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Aug 26.8 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug 29.5 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Aug 30.6 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept 30.3 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Sept 29.3 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
3 Sept 29.0 °C 21 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Sept after 28.4 °C 26 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Sept after 29.2 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept after 30.2 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Sept after 30.3 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Sept after 30.0 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept after 30.2 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Sept after 30.1 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept after 30.7 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept after 30.8 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Sept after 30.7 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2017
After · 10 Sept 2017

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 · 992Every 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 19 August 2017 and 3 September 2017: 16 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 21,338 hectares (213.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chipili (21,465 ha, 5.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.