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Lavushimanda fire, 14 October 2016 Lavushimanda, Samfya

Out · last detection 23 Oct 2016, 23:42 UTC

The fire started on 14 October 2016 in Lavushimanda, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,453 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 409th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 193 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.2 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
3,453ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
14 Oct 2016 – 23 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Oct
2016
Heat detections
154
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
684MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
51km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.4 mm on 1 Nov.

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
    3,387 ha reached on 7 Oct
    0.2 %
  2. Samfya
    80 ha reached on 7 Oct
    0.0 %

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)
14 Oct 33.1 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
15 Oct 33.3 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Oct 34.2 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Oct 35.1 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Oct 34.9 °C 13 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Oct 33.3 °C 18 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
20 Oct 33.0 °C 14 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
21 Oct 33.8 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 Oct 34.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Oct 35.2 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Oct after 35.3 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
25 Oct after 35.3 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Oct after 35.3 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
27 Oct after 35.0 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Oct after 34.2 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Oct after 34.1 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Oct after 34.0 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
31 Oct after 34.3 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 48
1 Nov after 33.1 °C 30 % 44 km/h 1.4 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Oct 2016
After · 30 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 · 154Every 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 14 October 2016 and 23 October 2016: 10 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 3,453 hectares (34.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lavushimanda (3,387 ha, 0.2 %); Samfya (80 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, class 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.