Burned area
satellite only6,083ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 27 Oct 2020 – 2 Nov 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
ZM · Zambia · –
Ngabwe fire, October 2020 Chibombo, Ngabwe
Out · last detection 2 Nov 2020, 11:12 UTC
The fire started on 27 October 2020 in Ngabwe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,083 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 77th largest in Central since 2016 (of 258 with a page). Number 72 in Zambia in 2020, of 229.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-11-15matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only7days
27 Oct 2020 to 2 Nov 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 2 Nov 2020, 11:12 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only27 Oct 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 27 Oct 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only235
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 150 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 27 Oct 2020 – 2 Nov 2020
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only888MW
Total radiative power on 1 November 2020; hotspots that day: 38.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 1 Nov 2020
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model53.3FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 14.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 27 Oct 2020, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model34.6°C · 19% RH
High of 34.6 °C and minimum humidity of 19% on 30 October 2020; gusts of 50 km/h on 30 October 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 27 Oct 2020 – 2 Nov 2020
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
logName: Chibombo → Ngabwe.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
What was saved on 15 November 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 6,083 ha
- Dates
- 27 Oct 2020 – 2 Nov 2020
- Name
- Ngabwe
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/ngabwe-2020-10?v=2026-11-15A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire ngabwe-2020-10.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-10-27 | 7 | 118 | 33.4 | 22.4 | 23 | 21.6 | 45.7 | 0 | 53.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-10-28 | 42 | 515 | 33.8 | 22 | 18 | 21.7 | 45.7 | 0 | 53.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-10-29 | 50 | 767 | 33.7 | 21.9 | 24 | 21 | 44.6 | 0.4 | 49.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-10-30 | 38 | 619 | 34.6 | 21.2 | 19 | 22.7 | 49.7 | 0.2 | 59.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-10-31 | 25 | 687 | 33.4 | 20.8 | 17 | 23.1 | 49 | 0 | 68.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-11-01 | 38 | 888 | 32.1 | 20.7 | 27 | 19.5 | 42.1 | 0.3 | 53.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-11-02 | 35 | 476 | 32 | 20.9 | 28 | 17.3 | 38.9 | 0.2 | 43.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2020-11-03 | 0 | 0 | 33.8 | 21.8 | 26 | 16.6 | 37.8 | 1 | 42.4 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 6,083ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 27 Oct 2020 – 2 Nov 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Oct
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 235
- in a single hotspot: 150 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 581MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
27 Oct2 Nov
2 Nov 2020
How it evolved, day by day
27 Oct
29 Oct
1 Nov
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
35°high
50km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity
It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 3 Nov.
This area had burned before
67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,440 ha in 2016, 3,397 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,052 ha that had burned before.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
4,692 ha0.6 %
-
Ngabwe where it started1,420 ha0.2 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Oct | 33.4 °C | 23 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 28 Oct | 33.8 °C | 18 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 29 Oct | 33.7 °C | 24 % | 45 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 50 |
| 30 Oct | 34.6 °C | 19 % | 50 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 31 Oct | 33.4 °C | 17 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 1 Nov | 32.1 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.3 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 2 Nov | 32.0 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Nov after | 33.8 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 1.0 mm | Very high 42 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 53.3, a minimum humidity of 23% and 14 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 9.
FWI at the start
53.3
Minimum humidity
23 %
Days without rain
14
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Ngabwe fire, October 2020
6,083 ha
7 days
FWI 53.3
Min. humidity 23 %
Rufunsa fire, October 2019
8,833 ha
15 days
FWI 47.9
Min. humidity 24 %
247 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.0 mm on 7 Nov.
Rufunsa fire, October 2019
5,150 ha
17 days
FWI 61.7
Min. humidity 21 %
232 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 4.5 mm on 12 Nov.
Mumbwa fire, October 2021
3,875 ha
3 days
FWI 54.9
Min. humidity 13 %
195 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 6.8 mm on 19 Oct.
Rufunsa fire, September 2022
5,729 ha
21 days
FWI 52.3
Min. humidity 23 %
239 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mufumbwe fire, September 2019
4,239 ha
9 days
FWI 52.6
Min. humidity 24 %
218 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
Fires in the area that started in similar weather: 9. With fewer than 15 we give no figures: they would be more noise than signal.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
1.0 mmfirst rain
3 Novthe day after it ended
50km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 2 Nov, and on 3 Nov 1.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 20 Oct 2020
After · 9 Nov 2020
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 235Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ngabwe fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 October 2020 and 2 November 2020: 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 6,083 hectares (60.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chibombo (4,692 ha, 0.6 %); Ngabwe (1,420 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Name: Chibombo → Ngabwe.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 235 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.