Chobe fire, 17 September 2023 Chobe
The fire started on 17 September 2023 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,652 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 72th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 158 in Botswana in 2023, of 381.
- Burnt area
- 3,652ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 17 Sept 2023 – 19 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 17 Sept
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 202
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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 more than two months 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
-
Chobe where it started3,677 ha reached on 11 Sept0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Sept | 36.9 °C | 9 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 18 Sept | 36.0 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 19 Sept | 36.1 °C | 14 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 20 Sept after | 35.3 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 21 Sept after | 37.0 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Sept after | 37.4 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 23 Sept after | 37.2 °C | 10 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 24 Sept after | 37.5 °C | 14 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 25 Sept after | 36.3 °C | 17 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 26 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 27 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 12 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 28 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 12 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 29 Sept after | 34.7 °C | 13 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
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 · 202Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 61,394 haChobe1 October 2021 · 18 days · 9 km away
- 11,813 haChobe29 October 2018 · 6 days · 21 km away
- 96,139 haChobe7 October 2021 · 12 days · 22 km away
- 46,491 haChobe8 October 2020 · 22 days · 22 km away
- 14,544 haChobe13 November 2017 · 5 days · 23 km away
- 13,699 haChobe11 September 2023 · 9 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chobe fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2023 and 19 September 2023: 3 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 3,652 hectares (36.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chobe (3,677 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.9 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 45 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.
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.