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Chobe fire, 26 August 2017 Chobe

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2017, 12:52 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2017 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,398 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 36th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 58 in Botswana in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
6,398ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
26 Aug 2017 – 6 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
26 Aug
2017
Heat detections
345
in a single hotspot: 97 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug6 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2627282930311234567

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
44km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 58 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Chobe where it started
    6,424 ha reached on 26 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)
26 Aug 33.3 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Aug 32.9 °C 14 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Aug 31.4 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Aug 30.6 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Aug 32.1 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
31 Aug 32.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Sept 32.8 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
2 Sept 33.1 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Sept 29.7 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Sept 29.2 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Sept 28.6 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept 32.2 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Sept after 33.1 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Sept after 34.2 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Sept after 34.2 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Sept after 34.4 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Sept after 34.3 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Sept after 33.9 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Sept after 34.2 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
14 Sept after 35.8 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Sept after 35.1 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Sept after 35.1 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Aug 2017
After · 13 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 · 345Every 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 26 August 2017 and 6 September 2017: 12 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 6,398 hectares (64.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chobe (6,424 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.