Chipili fire, 9 August 2023 Lupososhi, Chipili
The fire started on 9 August 2023 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,236 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 47th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 2 in Zambia in 2023, of 165.
- Burnt area
- 27,236ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 21days
- 9 Aug 2023 – 29 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 9 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 1,217
- in a single hotspot: 143 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 10.9GW
- 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
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17,512 ha in 2016, 16,734 ha in 2017, 14,544 ha in 2018, 17,891 ha in 2019, 10,749 ha in 2020, 15,341 ha in 2021, 16,066 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 27,131 ha that had burned before.
- 11,587 ha Kawambwa fire, August 2016 123,335 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,297 ha Lupososhi fire, August 2021 34,216 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,478 ha Lupososhi fire, August 2019 35,869 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,114 ha Chipili fire, August 2017 20,350 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,014 ha Lupososhi fire, August 2017 19,800 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,861 ha Chipili fire, August 2019 81,932 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,756 ha Lupososhi fire, September 2022 15,351 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,498 ha Lupososhi fire, August 2018 8,962 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
14,194 ha reached on 15 Aug3.4 %
-
Chipili where it started13,199 ha reached on 9 Aug3.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Aug | 26.5 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Aug | 25.4 °C | 30 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 11 Aug | 26.1 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 12 Aug | 26.8 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Aug | 27.1 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Aug | 28.6 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Aug | 29.7 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 16 Aug | 29.7 °C | 26 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Aug | 29.0 °C | 26 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 18 Aug | 29.2 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Aug | 29.8 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 20 Aug | 31.6 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 21 Aug | 31.6 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 22 Aug | 32.3 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Aug | 31.7 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Aug | 31.8 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Aug | 31.9 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 26 Aug | 32.9 °C | 20 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Aug | 32.1 °C | 13 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 28 Aug | 26.6 °C | 34 % | 75 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 29 Aug | 23.5 °C | 42 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Aug after | 26.9 °C | 30 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 31 Aug after | 29.1 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Sept after | 29.2 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Sept after | 30.2 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Sept after | 30.6 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 6 Sept after | 32.0 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 22 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
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 · 1,217Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 156,557 haLupososhi25 July 2026 · 65 days · 2 km away
- 110,204 haChipili9 August 2025 · 32 days · 3 km away
- 36,195 haChipili26 July 2024 · 21 days · 3 km away
- 35,869 haLupososhiAugust 2019 · 17 days · 21 km away
- 81,932 haChipili9 August 2019 · 33 days · 23 km away
- 296,161 haMansa15 August 2025 · 37 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chipili fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 August 2023 and 29 August 2023: 21 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 27,236 hectares (272.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lupososhi (14,194 ha, 3.4 %); Chipili (13,199 ha, 3.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 75 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.