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Mafinga fire, 9 October 2016 Mafinga, Chama

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2016, 11:45 UTC

The fire started on 9 October 2016 in Mafinga, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,015 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 507th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 245 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
3,015ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
9 Oct 2016 – 15 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
9 Oct
2016
Heat detections
84
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
685MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Oct15 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

91011131415

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
45km/h · peak gust
18%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. Mafinga where it started
    2,891 ha reached on 8 Oct
    0.7 %
  2. Chama
    145 ha reached on 11 Oct
    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)
9 Oct 31.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Oct 30.2 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Oct 30.4 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Oct 30.1 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Oct 30.3 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Oct 30.0 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Oct 30.1 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Oct after 30.3 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Oct after 32.0 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Oct after 31.4 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Oct after 28.4 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Oct after 28.5 °C 20 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
21 Oct after 29.3 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Oct after 30.5 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Oct after 31.5 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Oct after 32.3 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Oct after 32.0 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Oct 2016
After · 22 Oct 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 · 84Every 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 Mafinga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2016 and 15 October 2016: 7 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 3,015 hectares (30.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mafinga (2,891 ha, 0.7 %); Chama (145 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.