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Chobe fire, 8 September 2020 Chobe

Out · last detection 14 Sept 2020, 11:30 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2020 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,994 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 13th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 4 in Botswana in 2020, of 121.

Burnt area
20,994ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
8 Sept 2020 – 14 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
8 Sept
2020
Heat detections
670
in a single hotspot: 125 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
7.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept14 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

891011121314

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
44km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,072 ha in 2016, 2,645 ha in 2017, 11,951 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,457 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chobe where it started
    21,104 ha reached on 8 Sept
    1.0 %

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)
8 Sept 30.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Sept 29.0 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
10 Sept 29.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Sept 28.8 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Sept 29.4 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Sept 30.1 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Sept 31.9 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Sept after 33.6 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Sept after 35.3 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Sept after 34.5 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept after 32.1 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept after 33.9 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept after 35.7 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Sept after 36.3 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Sept after 34.9 °C 16 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
23 Sept after 32.4 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Sept after 33.7 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2020
After · 21 Sept 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 · 670Every 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 8 September 2020 and 14 September 2020: 7 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 20,994 hectares (209.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chobe (21,104 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.