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Luwingu fire, 13 September 2016 Luwingu

Out · last detection 21 Sept 2016, 10:55 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2016 in Luwingu, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,807 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 416th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 158 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
3,807ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
13 Sept 2016 – 20 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
13 Sept
2016
Heat detections
130
in a single hotspot: 170 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept20 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

13141516172021

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
46km/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

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Luwingu where it started
    3,833 ha reached on 7 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)
13 Sept 31.4 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Sept 31.6 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Sept 32.2 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Sept 32.4 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept 33.1 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Sept 33.7 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Sept 31.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Sept 29.8 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Sept after 30.5 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Sept after 31.0 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Sept after 32.1 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Sept after 32.5 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Sept after 32.7 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Sept after 32.2 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Sept after 32.1 °C 17 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Sept after 32.6 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Sept after 32.6 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Sept after 32.8 °C 20 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2016
After · 27 Sept 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 · 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 Luwingu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 September 2016 and 20 September 2016: 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 3,807 hectares (38.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Luwingu (3,833 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.