Chipili fire, 16 August 2022 Chipili
The fire started on 16 August 2022 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,024 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 131th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 35 in Zambia in 2022, of 235.
- Burnt area
- 10,024ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 16 Aug 2022 – 22 Aug 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 277
- in a single hotspot: 214 MW
- Danger at start
- 51
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.6GW
- 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
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,963 ha in 2016, 4,087 ha in 2017, 2,930 ha in 2018, 6,569 ha in 2019, 6,125 ha in 2020, 2,533 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,590 ha that had burned before.
- 6,484 ha Chipili fire, August 2019 10,879 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,654 ha Chipili fire, August 2020 26,924 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,600 ha Chipili fire, August 2017 21,338 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,374 ha Chipili fire, August 2016 31,556 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 338 ha Chipili fire, August 2017 8,070 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 44 ha Chipili fire, August 2021 4,117 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chipili where it started10,083 ha reached on 16 Aug2.4 %
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 | 29.3 °C | 22 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 17 Aug | 28.1 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 18 Aug | 29.4 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Aug | 31.0 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Aug | 31.2 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Aug | 31.1 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Aug | 28.4 °C | 27 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 27 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 31 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Aug after | 28.9 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Aug after | 30.2 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 28 Aug after | 30.0 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 29 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 31 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 29 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 1 Sept after | 27.2 °C | 34 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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 · 277Every 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 16 August 2022 and 22 August 2022: 7 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 10,024 hectares (100.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chipili (10,083 ha, 2.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.