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Chipili fire, 19 August 2019 Chipili, Lupososhi

Out · last detection 28 Aug 2019, 11:14 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2019 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,046 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 265th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 92 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.

Burnt area
5,046ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
19 Aug 2019 – 27 Aug 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
19 Aug
2019
Heat detections
148
in a single hotspot: 125 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Aug 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug27 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324252728

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
57km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,062 ha in 2016, 2,974 ha in 2017, 1,511 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,869 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chipili where it started
    4,990 ha reached on 19 Aug
    1.2 %
  2. Lupososhi
    90 ha
    0.0 %

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 26.7 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Aug 27.2 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug 26.2 °C 23 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Aug 25.0 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug 26.3 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Aug 28.2 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Aug 29.0 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Aug 29.9 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Aug 31.2 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Aug after 31.9 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Aug after 31.8 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug after 31.5 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug after 32.6 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept after 33.1 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
2 Sept after 32.6 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Sept after 30.1 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Sept after 29.6 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Sept after 32.0 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept after 30.4 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2019
After · 3 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 · 148Every 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 2019 and 27 August 2019: 9 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 5,046 hectares (50.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chipili (4,990 ha, 1.2 %); Lupososhi (90 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very high.
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.