Chobe fire, October 2026 Chobe
The fire started on 11 October 2026 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 28,119 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 10th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 129 with a page). Number 4 in Botswana in 2026, of 166.
- Burnt area
- 28,119ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 11 Oct 2026 – 20 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 11 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 461
- in a single hotspot: 146 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.7GW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,410 ha in 2016, 5,121 ha in 2017, 951 ha in 2018, 5,855 ha in 2020, 5,448 ha in 2022, 4,529 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,184 ha that had burned before.
- 5,448 ha Chobe fire, September 2022 9,751 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,475 ha Chobe fire, August 2017 7,192 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,402 ha Chobe fire, September 2016 4,150 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,086 ha Chobe fire, September 2020 6,863 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,955 ha Chobe fire, September 2020 2,734 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,257 ha Chobe fire, September 2023 2,059 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,040 ha Chobe fire, September 2023 3,829 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 921 ha Chobe fire, September 2023 2,481 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chobe where it started28,246 ha reached on 11 Oct1.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Oct | 33.5 °C | 17 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Oct | 33.9 °C | 14 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Oct | 35.0 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Oct | 35.6 °C | 14 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 15 Oct | 35.7 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 16 Oct | 34.8 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 17 Oct | 35.7 °C | 12 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 18 Oct | 36.0 °C | 13 % | 40 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 16 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 60 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 461Every 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 · 20 km away
- 20,994 haChobe8 September 2020 · 7 days · 26 km away
- 32,130 haHwange21 September 2022 · 27 days · 28 km away
- 24,712 haHwange6 October 2018 · 16 days · 29 km away
- 145,805 haChobe29 September 2018 · 20 days · 31 km away
- 106,342 haChobe3 September 2022 · 25 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chobe fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 October 2026 to 20 October 2026 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 October 2026 to 19 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 28,119 hectares (281.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chobe (28,246 ha, 1.3 %).
- Is the Chobe fire still active?
- No fire detections since 21 Oct 2026, 23:37 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.