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Luwingu fire, 12 September 2017 Luwingu, Kasama

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2017, 10:55 UTC

The fire started on 12 September 2017 in Luwingu, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,177 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 31th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 22 in Zambia in 2017, of 230.

Burnt area
17,177ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
12 Sept 2017 – 23 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
12 Sept
2017
Heat detections
626
in a single hotspot: 202 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
13.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

12131415161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
45km/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

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,062 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Luwingu where it started
    17,251 ha reached on 11 Sept
    3.5 %
  2. Kasama
    39 ha reached on 13 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)
12 Sept 31.2 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Sept 30.9 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Sept 31.1 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Sept 31.9 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Sept 31.6 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Sept 32.8 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Sept 32.6 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Sept 32.2 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept 31.9 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Sept 32.1 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Sept 31.3 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept 31.6 °C 21 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Sept after 31.3 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Sept after 32.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Sept after 32.0 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Sept after 32.3 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Sept after 32.9 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
29 Sept after 32.8 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Sept after 30.1 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Oct after 30.8 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Oct after 31.8 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Oct after 33.4 °C 20 % 37 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 · 5 Sept 2017
After · 30 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 · 626Every 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 12 September 2017 and 23 September 2017: 12 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 17,177 hectares (171.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luwingu (17,251 ha, 3.5 %); Kasama (39 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.