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Lupososhi fire, 19 August 2017 Lupososhi

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2017, 11:20 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2017 in Lupososhi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,125 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 587th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 209 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
3,125ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
19 Aug 2017 – 27 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Aug
2017
Heat detections
101
in a single hotspot: 104 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug27 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1920212223242527

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
51km/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

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,940 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Lupososhi where it started
    3,142 ha reached on 19 Aug
    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)
19 Aug 29.0 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Aug 27.6 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug 25.6 °C 34 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug 28.1 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Aug 30.2 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Aug 30.7 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Aug 30.4 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug 29.1 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Aug 29.0 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Aug after 28.3 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Aug after 26.5 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug after 29.1 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 Aug after 30.0 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept after 29.8 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Sept after 28.8 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Sept after 28.5 °C 22 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Sept after 28.0 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Sept after 28.8 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Sept after 29.5 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2017
After · 3 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 · 101Every 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 Lupososhi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2017 and 27 August 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 3,125 hectares (31.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lupososhi (3,142 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.