Chobe fire, 7 September 2020 Chobe
The fire started on 7 September 2020 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 28,973 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 9th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 3 in Botswana in 2020, of 121.
- Burnt area
- 28,973ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 7 Sept 2020 – 16 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 7 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 1,059
- in a single hotspot: 295 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 21.8GW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,369 ha in 2016, 1,035 ha in 2017, 20,423 ha in 2018, 802 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 22,896 ha that had burned before.
- 20,423 ha Chobe fire, September 2018 145,805 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,621 ha Chobe fire, October 2016 4,792 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,572 ha Chobe fire, October 2016 2,703 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 493 ha Chobe fire, September 2016 3,840 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 447 ha Chobe fire, October 2016 3,493 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 50 ha Chobe fire, August 2017 3,266 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 39 ha Chobe fire, August 2019 4,548 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chobe where it started29,152 ha reached on 7 Sept1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Sept | 29.1 °C | 16 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Sept | 30.1 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Sept | 28.8 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 10 Sept | 29.5 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 11 Sept | 28.3 °C | 20 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Sept | 29.0 °C | 18 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 13 Sept | 29.9 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 14 Sept | 31.6 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Sept | 33.4 °C | 11 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 16 Sept | 35.1 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 17 Sept after | 34.4 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 18 Sept after | 31.6 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 14 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 21 Sept after | 36.0 °C | 11 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 22 Sept after | 34.0 °C | 16 % | 60 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 23 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 23 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 24 Sept after | 33.5 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Sept after | 35.8 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 26 Sept after | 36.5 °C | 11 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
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 · 1,059Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 145,805 haChobe29 September 2018 · 20 days · 11 km away
- 28,119 haChobe October 2026 · 10 days · 20 km away
- 20,994 haChobe8 September 2020 · 7 days · 21 km away
- 33,213 haChobe14 September 2026 · 7 days · 25 km away
- 46,164 haChobe3 September 2017 · 24 days · 32 km away
- 32,130 haHwange21 September 2022 · 27 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chobe fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2020 and 16 September 2020: 10 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 28,973 hectares (289.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chobe (29,152 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.1 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.