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Mazabuka fire, June 2016 Mazabuka, Mumbwa

Out · last detection 16 Jun 2016, 11:13 UTC

The fire started on 1 June 2016 in Mazabuka, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,950 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 19th largest in Southern since 2016 (of 58 with a page). Number 99 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
4,950ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
1 Jun 2016 – 15 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
1 Jun
2016
Heat detections
164
in a single hotspot: 0 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jun 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Jun15 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

123456789101112141516

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
50km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 49 days 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. Mazabuka where it started
    4,945 ha
    1.2 %
  2. Mumbwa
    26 ha
    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 Jun 24.7 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
2 Jun 24.3 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
3 Jun 25.4 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Jun 25.4 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Jun 26.4 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Jun 24.3 °C 47 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Jun 25.0 °C 40 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Jun 24.2 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Jun 23.6 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Jun 23.8 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
11 Jun 24.9 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Jun 25.5 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
13 Jun 20.9 °C 48 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
14 Jun 23.4 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
15 Jun 25.4 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Jun after 26.1 °C 34 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Jun after 26.6 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jun after 25.9 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jun after 25.7 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Jun after 26.1 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Jun after 26.3 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Jun after 25.1 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Jun after 22.6 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jun after 21.5 °C 43 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jun after 22.2 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 May 2016
After · 22 Jun 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 · 0Every 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 Mazabuka fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 June 2016 and 15 June 2016: 15 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 4,950 hectares (49.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mazabuka (4,945 ha, 1.2 %); Mumbwa (26 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.4 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.