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Chobe fire, 31 August 2017 Chobe

Out · last detection 4 Sept 2017, 12:08 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2017 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,192 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 32th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 51 in Botswana in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
7,192ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
31 Aug 2017 – 4 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
31 Aug
2017
Heat detections
314
in a single hotspot: 119 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug4 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

311234

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
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Chobe where it started
    7,226 ha reached on 31 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
31 Aug 30.6 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
1 Sept 31.9 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept 31.5 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Sept 28.5 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Sept 27.4 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Sept after 27.6 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
6 Sept after 29.9 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Sept after 31.8 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Sept after 33.0 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Sept after 33.5 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Sept after 33.3 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Sept after 32.9 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Sept after 32.6 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Sept after 32.9 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Sept after 34.6 °C 8 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2017
After · 11 Sept 2017

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 · 314Every 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 Botswana ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chobe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2017 and 4 September 2017: 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 7,192 hectares (71.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chobe (7,226 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Botswana (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 (Public Domain). 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.