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Kaoma fire, September 2016 Kaoma

Out · last detection 30 Sept 2016, 11:26 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2016 in Kaoma, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,036 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 70th largest in Western since 2016 (of 162 with a page). Number 144 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
4,036ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
15 Sept 2016 – 30 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Sept
2016
Heat detections
329
in a single hotspot: 161 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
5.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept30 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

15161719202122232425262730

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
57km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 4 Oct.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Kaoma where it started
    4,059 ha reached on 8 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)
15 Sept 34.3 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Sept 34.6 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Sept 34.7 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Sept 35.1 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Sept 35.1 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Sept 33.6 °C 16 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
21 Sept 33.1 °C 15 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 Sept 33.7 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Sept 34.3 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Sept 36.0 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Sept 36.3 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Sept 35.3 °C 9 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
27 Sept 35.2 °C 12 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
28 Sept 36.0 °C 12 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
29 Sept 36.2 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Sept 36.6 °C 11 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
1 Oct after 36.6 °C 11 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
2 Oct after 35.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Oct after 33.4 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Oct after 32.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 1.3 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2016
After · 7 Oct 2016

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 · 329Every 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 Kaoma fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2016 and 30 September 2016: 16 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 4,036 hectares (40.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kaoma (4,059 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, class Very extreme.
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.

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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.