Chobe fire, October 2026 Chobe
The fire started on 24 October 2026 in Chobe, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,065 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 90th largest in Chobe since 2016 (of 131 with a page). Number 110 in Botswana in 2026, of 177.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Chobe · 2020Chobe · 2018Chobe · 2026Chobe · 2020
Is it still active?
No detections since 24 Oct 2026, 12:51 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
- Burnt area
- 3,065ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 24 Oct 2026 – 24 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- subdistricts
- Started on
- 24 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 64
- in a single hotspot: 96 MW
- Danger at start
- 62
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 1.2GW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
24 Oct 2026 · 1,248 MW · 64
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 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Chobe where it started3,082 ha reached on 24 Oct0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Oct | 36.5 °C | 20 % | 52 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 25 Oct after | 35.7 °C | 19 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
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 · 64Every 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 · 5 km away
- 145,805 haChobe29 September 2018 · 20 days · 15 km away
- 28,119 haChobe11 October 2026 · 10 days · 16 km away
- 20,994 haChobe8 September 2020 · 7 days · 20 km away
- 33,213 haChobe14 September 2026 · 7 days · 29 km away
- 46,164 haChobe3 September 2017 · 24 days · 34 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chobe fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 October 2026 and 24 October 2026: 1 day 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 3,065 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chobe (3,082 ha, 0.2 %).
- Is the Chobe fire still active?
- No fire detections since 24 Oct 2026, 12:51 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, 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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 64 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.
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.