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Mpulungu fire, 30 August 2016 Mpulungu

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2016, 11:58 UTC

The fire started on 30 August 2016 in Mpulungu, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,208 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 343th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 131 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
4,208ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
30 Aug 2016 – 7 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
30 Aug
2016
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 92 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 30 Aug7 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

3031123567

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
42km/h · peak gust
19%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. Mpulungu where it started
    4,234 ha reached on 28 Aug
    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)
30 Aug 27.2 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug 27.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept 27.0 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Sept 26.4 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept 28.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Sept 28.5 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Sept 29.3 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Sept 29.8 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Sept 29.4 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Sept after 29.0 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Sept after 29.0 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
10 Sept after 30.6 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
11 Sept after 29.8 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Sept after 29.5 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Sept after 30.3 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept after 30.3 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Sept after 29.7 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Sept after 29.8 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Sept after 29.3 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 23 Aug 2016
After · 14 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 · 143Every 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 Mpulungu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 30 August 2016 and 7 September 2016: 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 4,208 hectares (42.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mpulungu (4,234 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.