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Chobe fire, June 2020 Chobe, Ngamiland East

Out · last detection 11 Jun 2020, 12:51 UTC

The fire started on 6 June 2020 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,783 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 69th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 62 in Botswana in 2020, of 121.

Burnt area
3,783ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
6 Jun 2020 – 11 Jun 2020
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
6 Jun
2020
Heat detections
156
in a single hotspot: 346 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Jun 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jun11 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
33km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,669 ha in 2016, 2,286 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,379 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chobe where it started
    1,202 ha reached on 8 Jun
    0.1 %
  2. Ngamiland East
    506 ha reached on 8 Jun
    0.0 %

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)
6 Jun 26.0 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Jun 25.3 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Jun 25.5 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Jun 26.2 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
10 Jun 26.2 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Jun 27.0 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Jun after 20.3 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Jun after 24.1 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Jun after 24.8 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Jun after 24.9 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Jun after 24.2 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Jun after 23.8 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Jun after 22.8 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Jun after 22.7 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Jun after 22.6 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jun after 22.6 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 May 2020
After · 18 Jun 2020

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 · 156Every 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 6 June 2020 and 11 June 2020: 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 3,783 hectares (37.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chobe (1,202 ha, 0.1 %); Ngamiland East (506 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
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.