Chipili fire, 13 August 2021 Chipili
The fire started on 13 August 2021 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,461 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 158th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 38 in Zambia in 2021, of 213.
- Burnt area
- 8,461ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 13 Aug 2021 – 21 Aug 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 423
- in a single hotspot: 112 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.0GW
- 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
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,376 ha in 2016, 5,564 ha in 2017, 3,911 ha in 2018, 3,490 ha in 2019, 2,723 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,037 ha that had burned before.
- 4,479 ha Chipili fire, August 2017 22,834 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,165 ha Chipili fire, August 2016 76,625 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,475 ha Chipili fire, August 2019 81,932 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,761 ha Chipili fire, August 2018 5,493 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 36 ha Chipili fire, August 2017 3,100 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 34 ha Chipili fire, August 2018 20,116 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 32 ha Mansa fire, August 2017 258,414 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16 ha Chipili fire, August 2019 32,366 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chipili where it started8,516 ha reached on 13 Aug2.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Aug | 29.0 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Aug | 27.2 °C | 27 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Aug | 27.7 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 16 Aug | 26.6 °C | 32 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 17 Aug | 27.8 °C | 31 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Aug | 29.7 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Aug | 30.3 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Aug | 30.6 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Aug | 29.8 °C | 21 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Aug after | 24.8 °C | 46 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 25 Aug after | 30.0 °C | 26 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 26 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Aug after | 30.0 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 20 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Aug after | 30.9 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 21 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 31 Aug after | 29.5 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 · 423Every 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 · 3 km away
- 296,161 haMansa15 August 2025 · 37 days · 20 km away
- 156,557 haLupososhi1 August 2026 · 52 days · 24 km away
- 110,204 haChipili9 August 2025 · 32 days · 28 km away
- 185,598 haMansa21 August 2022 · 28 days · 33 km away
- 258,414 haMansa21 August 2017 · 34 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chipili fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 August 2021 and 21 August 2021: 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 8,461 hectares (84.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chipili (8,516 ha, 2.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.
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.