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Kaputa fire, June 2016 Kaputa

Out · last detection 4 Jul 2016, 23:23 UTC

The fire started on 29 June 2016 in Kaputa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,499 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 482th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 187 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
3,499ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
29 Jun 2016 – 3 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
29 Jun
2016
Heat detections
125
in a single hotspot: 82 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
923MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jun3 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

29301234

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
31km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 55 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Kaputa where it started
    3,523 ha reached on 28 Jun
    0.7 %

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)
29 Jun 30.1 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Jun 29.9 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Jul 29.7 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Jul 31.1 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Jul 29.8 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Jul after 28.1 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Jul after 27.7 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Jul after 28.2 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Jul after 28.7 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Jul after 28.5 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Jul after 28.0 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Jul after 26.4 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Jul after 28.2 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Jul after 27.0 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Jul after 27.6 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Jun 2016
After · 10 Jul 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 · 125Every 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 Kaputa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 June 2016 and 3 July 2016: 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 3,499 hectares (35.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kaputa (3,523 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.

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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.