Chobe fire, 29 October 2018 Chobe
The fire started on 29 October 2018 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 11,813 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 21th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 12 in Botswana in 2018, of 93.
- Burnt area
- 11,813ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 29 Oct 2018 – 3 Nov 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 29 Oct
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 496
- in a single hotspot: 147 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.9GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.6 mm on 5 Nov.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Chobe where it started11,903 ha reached on 29 Oct0.6 %
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 Oct | 35.4 °C | 11 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 30 Oct | 36.7 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 31 Oct | 38.3 °C | 7 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 1 Nov | 37.8 °C | 14 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 2 Nov | 38.7 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 3 Nov | 36.0 °C | 22 % | 50 km/h | 0.8 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 4 Nov after | 32.3 °C | 28 % | 44 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Nov after | 34.7 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 1.6 mm | High 25 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 496Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 61,394 haChobe1 October 2021 · 18 days · 13 km away
- 46,491 haChobe8 October 2020 · 22 days · 16 km away
- 14,544 haChobe13 November 2017 · 5 days · 16 km away
- 13,699 haChobe11 September 2023 · 9 days · 23 km away
- 21,059 haNgamiland East17 September 2021 · 14 days · 35 km away
- 96,139 haChobe7 October 2021 · 12 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chobe fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 October 2018 and 3 November 2018: 6 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 11,813 hectares (118.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chobe (11,903 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, 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.
Report an error
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.