Chipili fire, 16 August 2019 Chipili, Mansa, Lupososhi
The fire started on 16 August 2019 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,366 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 35th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 8 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.
- Burnt area
- 32,366ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 16 Aug 2019 – 2 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 2,118
- in a single hotspot: 165 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 21.7GW
- 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
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 20,915 ha in 2016, 18,291 ha in 2017, 15,590 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 27,681 ha that had burned before.
- 13,296 ha Mansa fire, August 2017 258,414 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,091 ha Chipili fire, August 2016 76,625 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,265 ha Chipili fire, August 2018 20,116 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,497 ha Mansa fire, August 2016 80,978 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,994 ha Chipili fire, August 2017 22,834 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,593 ha Chipili fire, August 2018 5,023 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10 ha Mansa fire, August 2018 83,277 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8 ha Chipili fire, August 2018 5,493 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chipili where it started22,897 ha reached on 10 Aug5.3 %
-
9,543 ha reached on 11 Aug1.2 %
-
130 ha reached on 14 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Aug | 26.2 °C | 26 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 17 Aug | 26.9 °C | 28 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Aug | 27.4 °C | 27 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 19 Aug | 26.7 °C | 23 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 20 Aug | 27.2 °C | 21 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 21 Aug | 26.3 °C | 23 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 22 Aug | 25.2 °C | 29 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 23 Aug | 26.4 °C | 29 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Aug | 28.3 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Aug | 29.1 °C | 28 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Aug | 30.1 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Aug | 31.4 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 28 Aug | 31.9 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 29 Aug | 31.9 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Aug | 31.5 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 31 Aug | 32.2 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 1 Sept | 33.2 °C | 14 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 2 Sept | 32.7 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 3 Sept after | 30.3 °C | 24 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 4 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 5 Sept after | 31.9 °C | 19 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Sept after | 30.5 °C | 20 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 7 Sept after | 27.5 °C | 20 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 8 Sept after | 23.8 °C | 31 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Sept after | 27.7 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 10 Sept after | 28.7 °C | 26 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 11 Sept after | 30.5 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Sept after | 31.7 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
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.
Detections table · 2,118Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 81,932 haChipili9 August 2019 · 33 days · 16 km away
- 258,414 haMansa21 August 2017 · 34 days · 23 km away
- 185,598 haMansa21 August 2022 · 28 days · 26 km away
- 296,161 haMansa15 August 2025 · 37 days · 31 km away
- 83,277 haMansa27 August 2018 · 19 days · 34 km away
- 156,557 haLupososhi25 July 2026 · 65 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chipili fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2019 and 2 September 2019: 18 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 32,366 hectares (323.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Chipili (22,897 ha, 5.3 %); Mansa (9,543 ha, 1.2 %); Lupososhi (130 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.
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.