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Chipili fire, 1 September 2020 Chipili, Kawambwa

Out · last detection 13 Sept 2020, 11:51 UTC

The fire started on 1 September 2020 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 28,968 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 42th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 9 in Zambia in 2020, of 229.

Burnt area
28,968ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
1 Sept 2020 – 12 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
1 Sept
2020
Heat detections
1,414
in a single hotspot: 201 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
17.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Sept12 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12345678910111213

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
56km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17,129 ha in 2016, 15,878 ha in 2017, 10,881 ha in 2018, 16,027 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 27,382 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chipili where it started
    27,689 ha reached on 27 Aug
    6.5 %
  2. Kawambwa
    1,442 ha reached on 28 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
1 Sept 32.0 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Sept 29.8 °C 21 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Sept 29.4 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Sept 28.7 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Sept 28.7 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Sept 29.3 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Sept 28.9 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Sept 29.2 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Sept 28.3 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Sept 28.6 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Sept 29.8 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Sept 29.1 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept after 29.2 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Sept after 31.2 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Sept after 31.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Sept after 31.5 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Sept after 33.3 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept after 32.9 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Sept after 32.4 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Sept after 33.2 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Sept after 34.0 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Sept after 33.4 °C 18 % 41 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 · 25 Aug 2020
After · 19 Sept 2020

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 · 1,414Every 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 1 September 2020 and 12 September 2020: 12 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 28,968 hectares (289.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chipili (27,689 ha, 6.5 %); Kawambwa (1,442 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 56 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.

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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.