Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Chitambo fire, 4 October 2022 Chitambo, Lavushimanda

Out · last detection 8 Oct 2022, 10:55 UTC

The fire started on 4 October 2022 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,046 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 391th largest in Central since 2016 (of 400 with a page). Number 226 in Zambia in 2022, of 235.

Burnt area
3,046ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
4 Oct 2022 – 8 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
4 Oct
2022
Heat detections
100
in a single hotspot: 140 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Oct 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Oct8 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

45678

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
49km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

37% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 518 ha in 2016, 428 ha in 2019, 282 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,126 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitambo where it started
    2,453 ha reached on 4 Oct
    0.2 %
  2. Lavushimanda
    614 ha reached on 4 Oct
    0.0 %

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)
4 Oct 34.5 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Oct 34.8 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 Oct 34.3 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Oct 33.6 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Oct 33.2 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Oct after 31.4 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Oct after 33.3 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Oct after 33.3 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Oct after 33.3 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Oct after 33.9 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Oct after 34.1 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Oct after 33.8 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Oct after 34.1 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Oct after 34.6 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Oct after 34.4 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Sept 2022
After · 15 Oct 2022

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 · 100Every 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 4 October 2022 and 8 October 2022: 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 3,046 hectares (30.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitambo (2,453 ha, 0.2 %); Lavushimanda (614 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.