Chitambo fire, 5 September 2023 Chitambo
The fire started on 5 September 2023 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,590 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 82th largest in Central since 2016 (of 401 with a page). Number 33 in Zambia in 2023, of 165.
- Burnt area
- 7,590ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 5 Sept 2023 – 19 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 284
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.4GW
- 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 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,838 ha in 2016, 4,208 ha in 2017, 2,301 ha in 2018, 1,150 ha in 2019, 4,637 ha in 2020, 4,292 ha in 2021, 533 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,415 ha that had burned before.
- 4,292 ha Chitambo fire, September 2021 39,948 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,462 ha Chitambo fire, September 2020 16,181 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,323 ha Chitambo fire, September 2017 9,418 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,858 ha Chitambo fire, September 2016 10,866 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,357 ha Chitambo fire, September 2018 25,250 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 256 ha Chitambo fire, September 2020 25,336 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 202 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 started7,644 ha reached on 2 Sept0.6 %
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 | 26.1 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Sept | 28.1 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Sept | 27.4 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 8 Sept | 26.8 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Sept | 25.4 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 10 Sept | 25.8 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Sept | 29.1 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 12 Sept | 29.6 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Sept | 25.6 °C | 37 % | 55 km/h | 1.5 mm | High 21 |
| 14 Sept | 22.4 °C | 48 % | 36 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 15 Sept | 25.9 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Sept | 28.0 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 17 Sept | 29.3 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Sept | 28.0 °C | 28 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Sept | 27.4 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Sept after | 28.6 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Sept after | 28.2 °C | 28 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Sept after | 28.1 °C | 27 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 27 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 26 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 27 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 28 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 29 Sept after | 28.7 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
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 · 284Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 39,948 haChitamboSeptember 2021 · 14 days · 10 km away
- 65,144 haChitambo1 September 2025 · 20 days · 11 km away
- 25,250 haChitambo8 September 2018 · 13 days · 17 km away
- 18,853 haChitambo10 September 2016 · 10 days · 17 km away
- 21,401 haChitambo6 September 2023 · 8 days · 18 km away
- 46,195 haChitambo5 September 2026 · 17 days · 19 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chitambo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2023 and 19 September 2023: 15 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 7,590 hectares (75.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chitambo (7,644 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.