Chipili fire, 24 August 2019 Chipili, Mwense, Mwansabombwe
The fire started on 24 August 2019 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,101 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.
It is the 63th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 11 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.
- Burnt area
- 23,101ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 24 Aug 2019 – 9 Sept 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 4
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Aug
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 840
- in a single hotspot: 75 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.3GW
- 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
60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,537 ha in 2016, 10,064 ha in 2017, 4,414 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,896 ha that had burned before.
- 2,797 ha Chipili fire, September 2017 5,849 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,860 ha Chipili fire, August 2017 3,998 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,848 ha Mwense fire, September 2016 3,864 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,846 ha Chipili fire, August 2018 3,084 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 809 ha Mwense fire, August 2017 3,727 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 304 ha Mwense fire, July 2016 3,758 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 27 ha Mwense fire, August 2017 3,171 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chipili where it started16,373 ha reached on 24 Aug3.8 %
-
6,438 ha reached on 24 Aug2.7 %
-
272 ha reached on 24 Aug0.2 %
-
145 ha reached on 27 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug | 29.1 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Aug | 29.3 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Aug | 30.4 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Aug | 31.9 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Aug | 32.3 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 29 Aug | 32.4 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 30 Aug | 32.2 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 31 Aug | 32.2 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Sept | 33.3 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 2 Sept | 33.2 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 3 Sept | 30.8 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 4 Sept | 30.0 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 5 Sept | 32.1 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Sept | 30.9 °C | 20 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 7 Sept | 28.2 °C | 21 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 8 Sept | 24.9 °C | 31 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 9 Sept | 28.1 °C | 26 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 27 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Sept after | 30.9 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Sept after | 31.1 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 26 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 22 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 16 Sept after | 31.2 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Sept after | 31.3 °C | 25 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 18 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 19 Sept after | 31.9 °C | 21 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
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 · 840Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chipili fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2019 and 9 September 2019: 17 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 23,101 hectares (231.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 4 municipalities: Chipili (16,373 ha, 3.8 %); Mwense (6,438 ha, 2.7 %); Mwansabombwe (272 ha, 0.2 %); Kawambwa (145 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.