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Chobe fire, 19 October 2020 Chobe

Out · last detection 28 Oct 2020, 12:45 UTC

The fire started on 19 October 2020 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,521 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 50th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 49 in Botswana in 2020, of 121.

Burnt area
4,521ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
19 Oct 2020 – 28 Oct 2020
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
19 Oct
2020
Heat detections
203
in a single hotspot: 75 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Oct 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Oct28 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232425262728

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
47km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days 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
    4,549 ha reached on 19 Oct
    0.2 %

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)
19 Oct 37.5 °C 10 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Oct 37.5 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Oct 38.0 °C 9 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
22 Oct 36.6 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
23 Oct 36.3 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
24 Oct 36.3 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Oct 37.3 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Oct 36.9 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Oct 37.2 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
28 Oct 37.5 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Oct after 36.2 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Oct after 38.2 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
31 Oct after 37.4 °C 13 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
1 Nov after 36.3 °C 19 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
2 Nov after 33.9 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 47
3 Nov after 32.2 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
4 Nov after 33.9 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Nov after 35.3 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 44
6 Nov after 38.0 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Nov after 38.5 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Oct 2020
After · 4 Nov 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 · 203Every 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 19 October 2020 and 28 October 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 4,521 hectares (45.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chobe (4,549 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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.