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Chobe fire, 20 October 2018 Chobe

Out · last detection 21 Oct 2018, 11:43 UTC

The fire started on 20 October 2018 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,637 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 40th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 33 in Botswana in 2018, of 93.

Burnt area
5,637ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
20 Oct 2018 – 21 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
20 Oct
2018
Heat detections
147
in a single hotspot: 117 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Oct21 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2021

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
56km/h · peak gust
20%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
    5,684 ha reached on 20 Oct
    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)
20 Oct 36.4 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 55
21 Oct 33.2 °C 26 % 56 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 57
22 Oct after 27.9 °C 24 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Oct after 28.0 °C 18 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Oct after 27.0 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Oct after 29.8 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Oct after 33.8 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Oct after 35.1 °C 8 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
28 Oct after 34.1 °C 8 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
29 Oct after 34.9 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Oct after 36.5 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Oct after 38.0 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Oct 2018
After · 28 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 · 147Every 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 20 October 2018 and 21 October 2018: 2 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 5,637 hectares (56.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chobe (5,684 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.