Chitambo fire, September 2021 Chitambo, Lavushimanda
The fire started on 5 September 2021 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 39,948 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 4th largest in Central since 2016 (of 400 with a page). Number 5 in Zambia in 2021, of 213.
- Burnt area
- 39,948ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 5 Sept 2021 – 18 Sept 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 1,730
- in a single hotspot: 161 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 18.8GW
- 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 42 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19,200 ha in 2016, 17,780 ha in 2017, 19,850 ha in 2018, 16,411 ha in 2019, 24,107 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 35,044 ha that had burned before.
- 16,529 ha Chitambo fire, September 2020 25,336 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 15,149 ha Chitambo fire, September 2018 25,250 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11,437 ha Chitambo fire, September 2016 18,853 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10,169 ha Chitambo fire, September 2019 12,241 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9,762 ha Chitambo fire, September 2017 11,277 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,249 ha Chitambo fire, September 2017 9,418 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,835 ha Chitambo fire, September 2020 16,181 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,179 ha Chitambo fire, September 2019 9,605 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chitambo where it started36,056 ha reached on 30 Aug3.0 %
-
4,175 ha reached on 1 Sept0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 25.1 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 6 Sept | 25.5 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Sept | 26.4 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Sept | 25.7 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Sept | 24.6 °C | 32 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 10 Sept | 23.1 °C | 35 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Sept | 20.0 °C | 42 % | 42 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 12 Sept | 22.5 °C | 40 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 13 Sept | 26.9 °C | 35 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 14 Sept | 27.1 °C | 33 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 15 Sept | 27.4 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Sept | 29.4 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Sept | 30.2 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Sept | 25.6 °C | 37 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 19 Sept after | 22.8 °C | 47 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 20 Sept after | 26.1 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 21 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 22 Sept after | 25.4 °C | 33 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Sept after | 22.7 °C | 45 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 24 Sept after | 25.8 °C | 35 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 25 Sept after | 26.2 °C | 30 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Sept after | 26.8 °C | 30 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Sept after | 27.1 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Sept after | 28.5 °C | 31 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
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 · 1,730Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 65,144 haChitambo1 September 2025 · 20 days · 8 km away
- 21,401 haChitambo6 September 2023 · 8 days · 15 km away
- 16,181 haChitambo4 September 2020 · 14 days · 16 km away
- 46,195 haChitambo29 August 2026 · 31 days · 18 km away
- 25,336 haChitambo7 September 2020 · 9 days · 19 km away
- 18,853 haChitambo10 September 2016 · 10 days · 19 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chitambo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2021 and 18 September 2021: 14 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 39,948 hectares (399.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitambo (36,056 ha, 3.0 %); Lavushimanda (4,175 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.2 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.
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.