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Chobe fire, 28 September 2018 Chobe

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2018, 11:56 UTC

The fire started on 28 September 2018 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,614 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 16th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 7 in Botswana in 2018, of 93.

Burnt area
16,614ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
28 Sept 2018 – 15 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
28 Sept
2018
Heat detections
547
in a single hotspot: 152 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
5.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Sept15 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

282930123456789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
63km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,714 ha in 2016, 1,982 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Chobe where it started
    16,683 ha reached on 28 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
28 Sept 37.1 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
29 Sept 35.7 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 58
30 Sept 31.9 °C 24 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
1 Oct 29.9 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Oct 32.6 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Oct 34.2 °C 8 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Oct 35.9 °C 9 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
5 Oct 32.3 °C 19 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
6 Oct 33.9 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
7 Oct 32.8 °C 12 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Oct 32.8 °C 10 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
9 Oct 32.5 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Oct 33.1 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Oct 35.0 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Oct 36.3 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Oct 37.3 °C 10 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
14 Oct 36.7 °C 16 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
15 Oct 35.9 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Oct after 36.0 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Oct after 36.9 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Oct after 37.8 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Oct after 37.5 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Oct after 36.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Oct after 33.6 °C 26 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
22 Oct after 27.8 °C 26 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Oct after 28.1 °C 19 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Oct after 27.1 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Oct after 30.7 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Sept 2018
After · 22 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 · 547Every 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 28 September 2018 and 15 October 2018: 18 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 16,614 hectares (166.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chobe (16,683 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 79, 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.