Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Milengi fire, 15 August 2016 Milengi, Samfya

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2016, 12:04 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2016 in Milengi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,690 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 194th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 68 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
6,690ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
15 Aug 2016 – 26 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Aug
2016
Heat detections
268
in a single hotspot: 163 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug26 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223242627

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
59km/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

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Milengi where it started
    6,474 ha reached on 15 Aug
    1.1 %
  2. Samfya
    253 ha reached on 21 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
15 Aug 29.6 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Aug 28.6 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Aug 27.8 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Aug 28.0 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Aug 29.0 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Aug 29.6 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Aug 31.0 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug 31.8 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Aug 31.3 °C 14 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Aug 27.1 °C 29 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Aug 27.4 °C 29 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Aug 28.2 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Aug after 28.1 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Aug after 27.6 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Aug after 27.8 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Aug after 28.3 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Aug after 28.7 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Sept after 28.0 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Sept after 27.8 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Sept after 28.5 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Sept after 29.7 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Sept after 30.3 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2016
After · 2 Sept 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 · 268Every 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 Milengi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2016 and 26 August 2016: 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 6,690 hectares (66.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Milengi (6,474 ha, 1.1 %); Samfya (253 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.