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Chobe fire, 1 October 2021 Chobe, Ngamiland East

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

The fire started on 1 October 2021 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 61,394 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 7 in Botswana in 2021, of 406.

Burnt area
61,394ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
1 Oct 2021 – 18 Oct 2021
Municipalities hit
2
subdistricts
Started on
1 Oct
2021
Heat detections
2,001
in a single hotspot: 370 MW
Danger at start
58
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
33.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Oct 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Oct18 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

23456789101112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
49km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 19 Oct.

This area had burned before

33% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,248 ha in 2016, 13,171 ha in 2017, 1,508 ha in 2018, 3,878 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Chobe where it started
    50,211 ha reached on 2 Oct
    2.4 %
  2. Ngamiland East
    11,611 ha reached on 15 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)
1 Oct 35.4 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
2 Oct 33.8 °C 28 % 43 km/h 1.7 mm High 31
3 Oct 32.5 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Oct 36.0 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Oct 35.0 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Oct 35.4 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Oct 36.0 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Oct 32.9 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Oct 37.8 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Oct 38.1 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
11 Oct 31.3 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Oct 32.7 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Oct 35.1 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Oct 36.2 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Oct 37.7 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Oct 38.9 °C 9 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
17 Oct 35.8 °C 6 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Oct 34.8 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
19 Oct after 30.8 °C 36 % 44 km/h 1.8 mm High 24

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 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 · 2,001Every 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 1 October 2021 and 18 October 2021: 18 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 61,394 hectares (613.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chobe (50,211 ha, 2.4 %); Ngamiland East (11,611 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.