Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Lavushimanda fire, 26 August 2017 Lavushimanda

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2017, 10:48 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2017 in Lavushimanda, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,073 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 230th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 96 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
5,073ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
26 Aug 2017 – 3 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Aug
2017
Heat detections
156
in a single hotspot: 102 MW
Danger at start
50
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug3 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

262728293031123

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
52km/h · peak gust
11%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
    5,101 ha reached on 26 Aug
    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)
26 Aug 27.7 °C 24 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Aug 27.6 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Aug 26.8 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Aug 25.5 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug 28.6 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Aug 29.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Sept 30.0 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept 26.9 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Sept 26.4 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Sept after 26.1 °C 31 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Sept after 27.6 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Sept after 29.2 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Sept after 28.0 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Sept after 29.2 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Sept after 29.9 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Sept after 29.4 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept after 29.6 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Sept after 28.7 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Sept after 29.4 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Aug 2017
After · 10 Sept 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 · 156Every 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 26 August 2017 and 3 September 2017: 9 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 5,073 hectares (50.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lavushimanda (5,101 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.