Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Limulunga fire, September 2016 Limulunga

Out · last detection 2 Oct 2016, 12:28 UTC

The fire started on 22 September 2016 in Limulunga, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,240 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 120th largest in Western since 2016 (of 162 with a page). Number 218 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
3,240ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
22 Sept 2016 – 1 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Sept
2016
Heat detections
116
in a single hotspot: 30 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
750MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Sept1 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

22232425262728293012

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
51km/h · peak gust
9%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. Limulunga where it started
    3,260 ha reached on 22 Sept
    0.8 %

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)
22 Sept 33.9 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Sept 34.1 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Sept 36.1 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
25 Sept 36.7 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Sept 36.1 °C 9 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
27 Sept 35.4 °C 13 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
28 Sept 35.2 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
29 Sept 36.0 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Sept 36.7 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
1 Oct 36.8 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
2 Oct after 35.7 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Oct after 34.1 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 51
4 Oct after 33.5 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Oct after 34.5 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Oct after 35.2 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Oct after 36.8 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Oct after 35.2 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Oct after 32.3 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Oct after 36.9 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Oct after 37.4 °C 13 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Sept 2016
After · 8 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 · 116Every 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 Limulunga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 September 2016 and 1 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 3,240 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Limulunga (3,260 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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.

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.