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Luampa fire, September 2018 Kazungula, Mulobezi, Luampa

Out · last detection 2 Oct 2018, 12:40 UTC

The fire started on 23 September 2018 in Luampa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,409 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 110th largest in Western since 2016 (of 162 with a page). Number 157 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Burnt area
3,409ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
23 Sept 2018 – 2 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
4
districts
Started on
23 Sept
2018
Heat detections
169
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
976MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Sept2 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

23242526272829302

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
66km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 224 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kazungula
    1,469 ha reached on 26 Sept
    0.1 %
  2. Mulobezi
    1,164 ha reached on 23 Sept
    0.1 %
  3. Luampa where it started
    563 ha reached on 19 Sept
    0.0 %
  4. Itezhi-Tezhi
    226 ha reached on 20 Sept
    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)
23 Sept 31.3 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Sept 31.3 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Sept 32.3 °C 24 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Sept 34.0 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Sept 33.8 °C 16 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Sept 34.3 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Sept 33.6 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
30 Sept 30.3 °C 25 % 66 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
1 Oct 27.8 °C 31 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Oct 29.2 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Oct after 30.7 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Oct after 32.8 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Oct after 31.7 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
6 Oct after 31.8 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Oct after 30.5 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Oct after 30.2 °C 16 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Oct after 29.9 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
10 Oct after 29.8 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
11 Oct after 31.4 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Oct after 33.1 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Sept 2018
After · 9 Oct 2018

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 · 169Every 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 Luampa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 September 2018 and 2 October 2018: 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 3,409 hectares (34.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Kazungula (1,469 ha, 0.1 %); Mulobezi (1,164 ha, 0.1 %); Luampa (563 ha, 0.0 %); Itezhi-Tezhi (226 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 66 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.