Skip to content
worldfires
BW · Botswana · →

Chobe fire, 7 September 2023 Chobe

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2023, 23:07 UTC

The fire started on 7 September 2023 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,779 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 30th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 130 with a page). Number 63 in Botswana in 2023, of 381.

Burnt area
7,779ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
7 Sept 2023 – 11 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
7 Sept
2023
Heat detections
304
in a single hotspot: 213 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
8.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Sept11 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

7891011

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
38km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,962 ha in 2016, 2,648 ha in 2017, 3,966 ha in 2018, 4,769 ha in 2020, 749 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,713 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chobe where it started
    7,820 ha reached on 7 Sept
    0.4 %

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 Sept 35.5 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Sept 35.5 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Sept 34.2 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Sept 34.1 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Sept 35.8 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
12 Sept after 30.5 °C 11 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
13 Sept after 29.2 °C 25 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Sept after 32.1 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Sept after 33.1 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Sept after 34.6 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
17 Sept after 36.5 °C 9 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Sept after 35.3 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
19 Sept after 35.3 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
20 Sept after 34.8 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Sept after 36.2 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Aug 2023
After · 18 Sept 2023

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 · 304Every 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 September 2023 and 11 September 2023: 5 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 7,779 hectares (77.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chobe (7,820 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.8 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.