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Lupososhi fire, August 2022 Lupososhi, Chipili

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2022, 11:39 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2022 in Lupososhi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,566 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 283th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 117 in Zambia in 2022, of 235.

Burnt area
4,566ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
31 Aug 2022 – 9 Sept 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
31 Aug
2022
Heat detections
130
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Sept 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug9 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

31123456789

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
54km/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: 1,726 ha in 2016, 2,157 ha in 2017, 678 ha in 2019, 946 ha in 2020, 784 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,613 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Lupososhi where it started
    4,595 ha reached on 29 Aug
    1.1 %
  2. Chipili
    0 ha reached on 2 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)
31 Aug 26.7 °C 32 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Sept 24.4 °C 41 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Sept 25.9 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Sept 28.3 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Sept 29.9 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Sept 30.5 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
6 Sept 30.7 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Sept 27.9 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Sept 26.7 °C 26 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept 27.4 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Sept after 28.8 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Sept after 29.5 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Sept after 30.9 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept after 29.5 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Sept after 27.6 °C 31 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept after 28.3 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Sept after 29.3 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept after 30.1 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Sept after 30.9 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Sept after 31.0 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2022
After · 16 Sept 2022

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 · 130Every 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 31 August 2022 and 9 September 2022: 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 4,566 hectares (45.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lupososhi (4,595 ha, 1.1 %); Chipili (0 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.