Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Ikelenge fire, June 2017 Ikelenge

Out · last detection 19 Jun 2017, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 12 June 2017 in Ikelenge, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,724 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 175th largest in North-Western since 2016 (of 286 with a page). Number 157 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
3,724ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
12 Jun 2017 – 19 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Jun
2017
Heat detections
151
in a single hotspot: 57 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
893MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Jun19 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

1213141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
42km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 889 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Ikelenge where it started
    3,745 ha reached on 6 Jun
    1.7 %

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)
12 Jun 27.5 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Jun 28.2 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Jun 29.1 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Jun 29.3 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Jun 27.9 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Jun 27.3 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Jun 27.8 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Jun 28.1 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Jun after 27.0 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Jun after 25.9 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Jun after 26.5 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Jun after 26.4 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jun after 27.8 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Jun after 28.0 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Jun after 28.5 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Jun after 27.3 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jun after 26.8 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
29 Jun after 27.6 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jun 2017
After · 26 Jun 2017

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 · 151Every 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 Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ikelenge fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 June 2017 and 19 June 2017: 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 3,724 hectares (37.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ikelenge (3,745 ha, 1.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zambia (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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.