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Chipili fire, 9 August 2019 Chipili, Kawambwa, Lupososhi

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2019, 22:57 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2019 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 33 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 81,932 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 21th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 3 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.

Burnt area
81,932ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
33days
9 Aug 2019 – 10 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
9 Aug
2019
Heat detections
5,984
in a single hotspot: 231 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
74.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
60km/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

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 45,531 ha in 2016, 49,668 ha in 2017, 35,029 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 71,049 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chipili where it started
    66,788 ha reached on 9 Aug
    16 %
  2. Kawambwa
    11,959 ha reached on 10 Aug
    1.5 %
  3. Lupososhi
    3,683 ha reached on 16 Aug
    0.9 %

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)
9 Aug 29.8 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Aug 28.0 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Aug 28.0 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Aug 29.2 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Aug 29.8 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Aug 28.0 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Aug 26.6 °C 24 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Aug 26.0 °C 26 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Aug 26.7 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Aug 27.2 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Aug 26.5 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Aug 27.0 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug 26.1 °C 23 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Aug 24.9 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug 26.2 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Aug 28.1 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Aug 28.9 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Aug 29.8 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Aug 31.0 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Aug 31.8 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Aug 31.6 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug 31.3 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug 32.4 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept 33.0 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Sept 32.4 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Sept 30.0 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Sept 29.4 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Sept 31.8 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept 30.3 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Sept 27.2 °C 21 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Sept 23.7 °C 31 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept 27.6 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Sept 28.5 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
11 Sept after 30.3 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Sept after 31.6 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Sept after 31.4 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Sept after 31.8 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept after 33.3 °C 17 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept after 30.8 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept after 30.7 °C 25 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
18 Sept after 31.3 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Sept after 31.3 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Sept after 31.8 °C 20 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Aug 2019
After · 17 Sept 2019

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 · 5,984Every 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 2019 and 10 September 2019: 33 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 81,932 hectares (819.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Chipili (66,788 ha, 16 %); Kawambwa (11,959 ha, 1.5 %); Lupososhi (3,683 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.