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Luwingu fire, 1 September 2019 Luwingu, Kasama

Out · last detection 6 Sept 2019, 11:45 UTC

The fire started on 1 September 2019 in Luwingu, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,541 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 472th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 191 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.

Burnt area
3,541ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
1 Sept 2019 – 5 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
1 Sept
2019
Heat detections
91
in a single hotspot: 93 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Sept5 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

123456

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
43km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

69% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,872 ha in 2016, 1,413 ha in 2017, 369 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,448 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Luwingu where it started
    3,128 ha reached on 1 Sept
    0.6 %
  2. Kasama
    436 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)
1 Sept 33.1 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Sept 32.3 °C 21 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Sept 30.3 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Sept 29.6 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Sept 31.5 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
6 Sept after 31.0 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Sept after 27.9 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Sept after 23.2 °C 33 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Sept after 27.6 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Sept after 28.7 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Sept after 30.6 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Sept after 31.7 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Sept after 31.9 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept after 32.7 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Sept after 32.9 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Aug 2019
After · 12 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 · 91Every 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 1 September 2019 and 5 September 2019: 5 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 3,541 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luwingu (3,128 ha, 0.6 %); Kasama (436 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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.