Chobe fire, 24 August 2022 Chobe
The fire started on 24 August 2022 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,564 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 48th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 115 in Botswana in 2022, of 327.
- Burnt area
- 4,564ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 24 Aug 2022 – 29 Aug 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 24 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 170
- in a single hotspot: 58 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.9GW
- 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 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 107 ha in 2016, 3,530 ha in 2018, 2,123 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,967 ha that had burned before.
- 3,530 ha Chobe fire, September 2018 145,805 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,123 ha Chobe fire, September 2020 28,973 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 107 ha Chobe fire, October 2016 3,493 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chobe where it started4,590 ha reached on 23 Aug0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Aug | 26.1 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Aug | 26.7 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 26 Aug | 28.8 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 27 Aug | 29.9 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 28 Aug | 30.1 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Aug | 30.9 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 30 Aug after | 31.6 °C | 16 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 31 Aug after | 27.5 °C | 28 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 1 Sept after | 25.3 °C | 28 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 2 Sept after | 25.4 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Sept after | 27.4 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 4 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Sept after | 34.0 °C | 12 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Sept after | 34.2 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 7 Sept after | 29.7 °C | 26 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 8 Sept after | 29.7 °C | 21 % | 39 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.
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 · 170Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 28,973 haChobe7 September 2020 · 10 days · 15 km away
- 145,805 haChobe29 September 2018 · 20 days · 21 km away
- 33,213 haChobe14 September 2026 · 7 days · 21 km away
- 28,119 haChobe October 2026 · 10 days · 26 km away
- 32,130 haHwange21 September 2022 · 27 days · 28 km away
- 25,715 haChobe6 October 2022 · 12 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chobe fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2022 and 29 August 2022: 6 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 4,564 hectares (45.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chobe (4,590 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
- 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.