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Chitambo fire, 10 September 2017 Chitambo

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2017, 12:03 UTC

The fire started on 10 September 2017 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,296 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 337th largest in Central since 2016 (of 401 with a page). Number 188 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
3,296ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
10 Sept 2017 – 14 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
10 Sept
2017
Heat detections
105
in a single hotspot: 46 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Sept14 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
46km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

52% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,714 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitambo where it started
    3,321 ha reached on 10 Sept
    0.3 %

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)
10 Sept 27.2 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Sept 27.2 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Sept 26.9 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Sept 27.5 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
14 Sept 27.9 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept after 28.4 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Sept after 27.6 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Sept after 30.1 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept after 28.7 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept after 28.3 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Sept after 28.9 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Sept after 28.2 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Sept after 27.6 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Sept after 28.6 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Sept after 27.6 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 3 Sept 2017
After · 21 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 · 105Every 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 10 September 2017 and 14 September 2017: 5 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 3,296 hectares (33.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chitambo (3,321 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

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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.