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Mpongwe fire, 14 July 2016 Mpongwe

Out · last detection 19 Jul 2016, 10:55 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2016 in Mpongwe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,780 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 45th largest in Copperbelt since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 160 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
3,780ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
14 Jul 2016 – 19 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Jul
2016
Heat detections
94
in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Energy released
901MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul19 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819

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

The weather it burned in

24°high
44km/h · peak gust
31%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. Mpongwe where it started
    3,801 ha reached on 7 Jul
    0.4 %

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)
14 Jul 21.7 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
15 Jul 23.6 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Jul 23.8 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Jul 24.2 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Jul 22.8 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Jul 22.0 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jul after 22.3 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Jul after 24.1 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Jul after 24.8 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Jul after 25.9 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Jul after 27.2 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Jul after 27.2 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Jul after 28.8 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Jul after 28.3 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Jul after 29.1 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Jul after 29.4 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jul 2016
After · 26 Jul 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 · 94Every 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 Mpongwe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 July 2016 and 19 July 2016: 6 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 3,780 hectares (37.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mpongwe (3,801 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.2 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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.