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Lavushimanda fire, August 2016 Lavushimanda, Chitambo

Out · last detection 6 Sept 2016, 12:16 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2016 in Lavushimanda, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,144 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 308th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 132 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
4,144ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
31 Aug 2016 – 5 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
31 Aug
2016
Heat detections
123
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
484MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug5 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

31123456

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
48km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Lavushimanda where it started
    2,105 ha reached on 31 Aug
    0.2 %
  2. Chitambo
    2,065 ha reached on 1 Sept
    0.2 %

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)
31 Aug 24.8 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Sept 24.0 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Sept 23.7 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Sept 24.8 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Sept 26.1 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Sept 26.7 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Sept after 27.3 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Sept after 27.4 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Sept after 29.2 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Sept after 30.0 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Sept after 29.3 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Sept after 27.7 °C 24 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Sept after 27.0 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Sept after 27.8 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Sept after 27.9 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept after 29.5 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2016
After · 12 Sept 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 · 123Every 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 Lavushimanda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2016 and 5 September 2016: 6 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 4,144 hectares (41.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lavushimanda (2,105 ha, 0.2 %); Chitambo (2,065 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.7 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.