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Luwingu fire, 24 August 2023 Luwingu

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2023, 11:46 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2023 in Luwingu, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,932 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 395th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 94 in Zambia in 2023, of 165.

Burnt area
3,932ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
24 Aug 2023 – 1 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
24 Aug
2023
Heat detections
117
in a single hotspot: 129 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug1 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

242627282930311

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
63km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,852 ha in 2016, 749 ha in 2017, 17 ha in 2018, 227 ha in 2019, 2,226 ha in 2020, 1,689 ha in 2021, 797 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,414 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Luwingu where it started
    3,960 ha reached on 21 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)
24 Aug 31.9 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Aug 31.4 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Aug 32.8 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Aug 32.7 °C 14 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
28 Aug 26.5 °C 37 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Aug 23.3 °C 45 % 43 km/h 0.3 mm High 31
30 Aug 27.2 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Aug 28.5 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Sept 30.1 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Sept after 30.9 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Sept after 32.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Sept after 30.6 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Sept after 30.7 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Sept after 32.3 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Sept after 32.4 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Sept after 31.6 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept after 30.9 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Sept after 30.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Sept after 32.1 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Aug 2023
After · 8 Sept 2023

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 · 117Every 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 24 August 2023 and 1 September 2023: 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 3,932 hectares (39.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Luwingu (3,960 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 63 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, 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.