Chitambo fire, 7 September 2020 Chitambo, Lavushimanda
The fire started on 7 September 2020 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,336 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 13th largest in Central since 2016 (of 401 with a page). Number 14 in Zambia in 2020, of 229.
- Burnt area
- 25,336ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 7 Sept 2020 – 15 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 961
- in a single hotspot: 84 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 12.9GW
- 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 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 16,005 ha in 2016, 13,767 ha in 2017, 17,226 ha in 2018, 14,989 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 24,496 ha that had burned before.
- 15,459 ha Chitambo fire, September 2018 25,250 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 13,574 ha Chitambo fire, September 2016 18,853 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,069 ha Chitambo fire, September 2019 12,241 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8,785 ha Chitambo fire, September 2017 11,277 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,931 ha Chitambo fire, September 2019 9,605 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,241 ha Chitambo fire, September 2017 9,418 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 476 ha Chitambo fire, September 2018 3,310 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 168 ha Chitambo fire, September 2018 3,793 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chitambo where it started25,136 ha reached on 7 Sept2.1 %
-
381 ha reached on 8 Sept0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Sept | 22.4 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 8 Sept | 22.6 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 9 Sept | 21.7 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Sept | 22.8 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 11 Sept | 22.6 °C | 32 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 12 Sept | 22.4 °C | 34 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Sept | 24.2 °C | 38 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Sept | 25.4 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 15 Sept | 27.9 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Sept after | 28.5 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 17 Sept after | 29.4 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Sept after | 27.1 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 19 Sept after | 26.2 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Sept after | 26.9 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 Sept after | 28.4 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Sept after | 26.9 °C | 23 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Sept after | 22.2 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Sept after | 24.8 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 25 Sept after | 27.6 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
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 · 961Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chitambo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2020 and 15 September 2020: 9 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 25,336 hectares (253.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitambo (25,136 ha, 2.1 %); Lavushimanda (381 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class 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.
Report an error
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.