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Chobe fire, 13 September 2022 Chobe

Out · last detection 20 Sept 2022, 11:31 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2022 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,751 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 24th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 54 in Botswana in 2022, of 327.

Burnt area
9,751ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
13 Sept 2022 – 20 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
13 Sept
2022
Heat detections
330
in a single hotspot: 278 MW
Danger at start
64
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept20 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
56km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,820 ha in 2016, 1,563 ha in 2017, 194 ha in 2018, 2,305 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,849 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chobe where it started
    9,733 ha reached on 13 Sept
    0.5 %

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)
13 Sept 32.9 °C 17 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
14 Sept 29.1 °C 22 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
15 Sept 28.4 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Sept 30.0 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Sept 31.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Sept 33.6 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept 34.6 °C 18 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Sept 31.8 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Sept after 32.5 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Sept after 33.9 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Sept after 34.8 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Sept after 34.1 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
25 Sept after 33.6 °C 15 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
26 Sept after 34.3 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Sept after 35.2 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Sept after 34.0 °C 20 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
29 Sept after 33.0 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
30 Sept after 33.0 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2022
After · 27 Sept 2022

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 · 330Every 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 13 September 2022 and 20 September 2022: 8 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 9,751 hectares (97.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chobe (9,733 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 56 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.