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Chobe fire, 29 September 2018 Chobe

Out · last detection 19 Oct 2018, 23:31 UTC

The fire started on 29 September 2018 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 145,805 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the largest fire in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). The largest in Botswana in 2018, of 93.

Burnt area
145,805ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
29 Sept 2018 – 18 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
29 Sept
2018
Heat detections
4,833
in a single hotspot: 291 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
55.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Sept18 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

293012345678910111213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
61km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

19% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19,568 ha in 2016, 9,129 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Chobe where it started
    146,090 ha reached on 28 Sept
    6.9 %

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)
29 Sept 35.1 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Sept 31.2 °C 24 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
1 Oct 29.5 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Oct 32.2 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Oct 33.9 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Oct 35.4 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Oct 31.2 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Oct 33.2 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
7 Oct 32.4 °C 10 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
8 Oct 32.2 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
9 Oct 31.9 °C 13 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Oct 32.6 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Oct 34.6 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
12 Oct 35.8 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Oct 36.4 °C 11 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
14 Oct 36.1 °C 16 % 61 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
15 Oct 35.6 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Oct 35.8 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 54
17 Oct 36.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Oct 37.7 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Oct after 36.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Oct after 36.1 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Oct after 33.0 °C 27 % 59 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 61
22 Oct after 27.5 °C 26 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Oct after 27.4 °C 19 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
24 Oct after 26.7 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Oct after 30.1 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Sept 2018
After · 25 Oct 2018

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 · 4,833Every 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 29 September 2018 and 18 October 2018: 20 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 145,805 hectares (1,458.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chobe (146,090 ha, 6.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 61 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very 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.