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ZM · Zambia · →

Lunte fire, 25 August 2019 Lunte, Kasama

Out · last detection 2 Sept 2019, 11:20 UTC

The fire started on 25 August 2019 in Lunte, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,211 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 341th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 135 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.

Burnt area
4,211ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
25 Aug 2019 – 1 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
25 Aug
2019
Heat detections
202
in a single hotspot: 101 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Aug1 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2526272829303112

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
46km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,886 ha in 2016, 2,353 ha in 2017, 2,248 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,316 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Lunte where it started
    3,859 ha reached on 19 Aug
    0.5 %
  2. Kasama
    372 ha reached on 29 Aug
    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)
25 Aug 26.2 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Aug 27.6 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Aug 28.6 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Aug 29.1 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug 28.6 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Aug 28.7 °C 21 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Aug 30.0 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Sept 29.9 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Sept after 29.2 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Sept after 27.6 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Sept after 26.8 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Sept after 28.7 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Sept after 28.1 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Sept after 25.5 °C 23 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
8 Sept after 20.4 °C 40 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Sept after 24.7 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Sept after 25.4 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Sept after 26.8 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Aug 2019
After · 8 Sept 2019

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 · 202Every 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 Lunte fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 August 2019 and 1 September 2019: 8 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 4,211 hectares (42.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lunte (3,859 ha, 0.5 %); Kasama (372 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.0 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.

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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.