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Chipili fire, 22 August 2017 Chipili

Out · last detection 29 Aug 2017, 12:23 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2017 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,070 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 170th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 56 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
8,070ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
22 Aug 2017 – 28 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Aug
2017
Heat detections
271
in a single hotspot: 98 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug28 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
51km/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

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,995 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Chipili where it started
    8,120 ha reached on 20 Aug
    1.9 %

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)
22 Aug 28.2 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Aug 30.8 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Aug 31.5 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Aug 31.4 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Aug 30.3 °C 17 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Aug 30.1 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Aug 29.0 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Aug after 27.5 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Aug after 29.8 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Aug after 31.0 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Sept after 30.8 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept after 30.0 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Sept after 29.6 °C 20 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
4 Sept after 29.0 °C 25 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Sept after 29.7 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept after 30.8 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Sept after 30.9 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Aug 2017
After · 4 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 · 271Every 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 22 August 2017 and 28 August 2017: 7 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 8,070 hectares (80.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chipili (8,120 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 51 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.