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Chitambo fire, 12 September 2018 Chitambo, Lavushimanda

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2018, 23:36 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2018 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,310 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 331th largest in Central since 2016 (of 400 with a page). Number 171 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Burnt area
3,310ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
12 Sept 2018 – 21 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
12 Sept
2018
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 109 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept21 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819202122

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
45km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 1 Oct.

This area had burned before

20% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 670 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitambo where it started
    2,481 ha reached on 12 Sept
    0.2 %
  2. Lavushimanda
    852 ha reached on 12 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
12 Sept 25.5 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
13 Sept 26.4 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Sept 27.7 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Sept 27.4 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Sept 27.6 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Sept 28.0 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Sept 28.0 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Sept 27.0 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Sept 26.8 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Sept 26.3 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept after 27.4 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Sept after 26.8 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Sept after 26.8 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Sept after 27.1 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Sept after 29.0 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Sept after 28.6 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Sept after 28.3 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Sept after 28.7 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Sept after 23.9 °C 33 % 58 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 41
1 Oct after 20.8 °C 44 % 38 km/h 1.0 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Sept 2018
After · 28 Sept 2018

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 · 143Every 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 12 September 2018 and 21 September 2018: 10 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 3,310 hectares (33.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitambo (2,481 ha, 0.2 %); Lavushimanda (852 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.