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Chitambo fire, 27 August 2019 Chitambo, Serenje

Out · last detection 6 Sept 2019, 11:44 UTC

The fire started on 27 August 2019 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,175 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 363th largest in Central since 2016 (of 401 with a page). Number 226 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,175ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
27 Aug 2019 – 6 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
27 Aug
2019
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
649MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Aug6 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

272829301246

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
49km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,144 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitambo where it started
    1,957 ha reached on 27 Aug
    0.2 %
  2. Serenje
    1,236 ha reached on 27 Aug
    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)
27 Aug 29.6 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Aug 29.6 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Aug 29.6 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Aug 29.3 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Aug 30.6 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Sept 32.0 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Sept 29.2 °C 33 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Sept 26.8 °C 37 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Sept 27.1 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Sept 29.3 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Sept 27.2 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Sept after 23.9 °C 30 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Sept after 18.9 °C 46 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Sept after 24.7 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Sept after 26.9 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Sept after 29.5 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Sept after 31.7 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Sept after 32.1 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Sept after 32.0 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept after 30.4 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept after 28.7 °C 29 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 20 Aug 2019
After · 13 Sept 2019

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 · 84Every 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 27 August 2019 and 6 September 2019: 11 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 3,175 hectares (31.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitambo (1,957 ha, 0.2 %); Serenje (1,236 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.