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Chitambo fire, 19 August 2017 Chitambo, Serenje

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2017, 11:26 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2017 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,132 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 117th largest in Central since 2016 (of 400 with a page). Number 72 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
6,132ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
19 Aug 2017 – 31 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
19 Aug
2017
Heat detections
231
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug31 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1921222324252627282930311

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

31°high
54km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

2% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 135 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitambo where it started
    3,533 ha reached on 19 Aug
    0.3 %
  2. Serenje
    2,632 ha reached on 19 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)
19 Aug 28.5 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Aug 24.8 °C 38 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug 25.5 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Aug 27.5 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Aug 30.1 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug 30.9 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Aug 30.7 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Aug 28.7 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Aug 28.4 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Aug 27.5 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Aug 25.8 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug 28.8 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Aug 29.7 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Sept after 30.0 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Sept after 27.8 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Sept after 27.2 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Sept after 26.5 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Sept after 28.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Sept after 30.1 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Sept after 28.8 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Sept after 30.3 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept after 30.8 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Sept after 30.2 °C 20 % 38 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.

Before · 12 Aug 2017
After · 7 Sept 2017

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 · 231Every 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 Chitambo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2017 and 31 August 2017: 13 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 6,132 hectares (61.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitambo (3,533 ha, 0.3 %); Serenje (2,632 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.