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Chobe fire, 7 October 2021 Chobe, Ngamiland East

Out · last detection 18 Oct 2021, 11:50 UTC

The fire started on 7 October 2021 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 96,139 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 3 in Botswana in 2021, of 406.

Burnt area
96,139ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
7 Oct 2021 – 18 Oct 2021
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
7 Oct
2021
Heat detections
3,592
in a single hotspot: 278 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
45.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Oct 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Oct18 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

789101112131415161718

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
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 47 ha in 2017, 6,813 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Chobe where it started
    54,031 ha reached on 5 Oct
    2.6 %
  2. Ngamiland East
    42,410 ha reached on 10 Oct
    0.8 %

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 Oct 35.7 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Oct 32.9 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Oct 37.3 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Oct 37.8 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
11 Oct 30.9 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Oct 32.2 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Oct 34.5 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Oct 35.8 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Oct 37.2 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Oct 38.3 °C 10 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Oct 35.4 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Oct 34.3 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Oct after 30.1 °C 38 % 47 km/h 0.7 mm High 38
20 Oct after 32.1 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Oct after 30.6 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Oct after 35.1 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Oct after 35.5 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.9 mm High 29
24 Oct after 34.2 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Oct after 35.6 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Oct after 33.4 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.6 mm High 33
27 Oct after 33.9 °C 26 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Oct after 34.0 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Sept 2021
After · 25 Oct 2021

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 · 3,592Every 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 7 October 2021 and 18 October 2021: 12 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 96,139 hectares (961.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chobe (54,031 ha, 2.6 %); Ngamiland East (42,410 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.