Burned area
satellite only1,005ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 10 Nov 2017 – 22 Nov 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
MW · Malawi · –
Nkhotakota fire, November 2017 Nkhotakota
Out · last detection 21 Nov 2017, 11:07 UTC
The fire started on 10 November 2017 in Nkhotakota, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,005 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 158th largest in Central Region since 2016 (of 159 with a page). Number 62 in Malawi in 2017, of 62.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-27matches 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 only13days
10 Nov 2017 to 22 Nov 2017: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 21 Nov 2017, 11:07 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 only10 Nov 2017
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 10 Nov 2017
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only35
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 40 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 10 Nov 2017 – 22 Nov 2017
+− 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 only120MW
Total radiative power on 16 November 2017; hotspots that day: 8.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 16 Nov 2017
+− 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
model15.7FWI · moderate
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 4.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 10 Nov 2017, 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
model32.1°C · 25% RH
High of 32.1 °C and minimum humidity of 25% on 17 November 2017; gusts of 46 km/h on 18 November 2017.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 10 Nov 2017 – 22 Nov 2017
- 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
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 18 November 2017 → 22 November 2017.
-
logStart date: 11 November 2017 → 10 November 2017.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 27 October 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
- 1,005 ha
- Dates
- 10 Nov 2017 – 22 Nov 2017
- Name
- Nkhotakota
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/nkhotakota-2017-11?v=2026-10-27A 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 nkhotakota-2017-11.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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-11-10 | 3 | 43 | 29.2 | 20.1 | 36 | 13 | 42.5 | 1 | 15.7 | moderado | 1 |
| 2017-11-11 | 7 | 51 | 29.9 | 20.9 | 37 | 11.9 | 42.1 | 1.1 | 14.4 | moderado | 1 |
| 2017-11-12 | 0 | 0 | 27.3 | 19.9 | 55 | 8.7 | 36 | 3.3 | 3.1 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2017-11-13 | 7 | 102 | 28.5 | 20.3 | 39 | 14.3 | 40.3 | 0.6 | 11.9 | moderado | 1 |
| 2017-11-14 | 3 | 21 | 30.2 | 19.2 | 30 | 13.8 | 43.6 | 0.1 | 20.7 | moderado | 1 |
| 2017-11-15 | 2 | 5 | 30 | 20.5 | 30 | 16.7 | 45.4 | 0 | 24.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-11-16 | 8 | 120 | 31.5 | 20.6 | 25 | 15.5 | 42.1 | 0 | 27.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-11-17 | 1 | 2 | 32.1 | 20.6 | 25 | 16.6 | 36 | 0 | 29.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-11-18 | 3 | 27 | 29.2 | 21.3 | 38 | 17.8 | 46.1 | 0.2 | 27.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2017-11-19 | 0 | 0 | 28.6 | 20.7 | 44 | 15.4 | 43.2 | 1.4 | 13.7 | moderado | 1 |
| 2017-11-20 | 0 | 0 | 26.7 | 18.7 | 56 | 13 | 36 | 8.1 | 2 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2017-11-21 | 1 | 3 | 26.9 | 18 | 51 | 12.6 | 35.3 | 1.1 | 4.7 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2017-11-22 | 0 | 0 | 28.5 | 19.6 | 44 | 11.8 | 38.5 | 0.5 | 11.4 | moderado | 1 |
| 2017-11-23 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 18.7 | 46 | 10.7 | 35.6 | 2 | 5.9 | bajo | 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), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 1,005ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 10 Nov 2017 – 22 Nov 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 10 Nov
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 35
- in a single hotspot: 40 MW
- Danger at start
- 16
- Moderate · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 42MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
10 Nov22 Nov
21 Nov 2017
How it evolved, day by day
10 Nov
13 Nov
16 Nov
21 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
32°high
46km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity
It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 23 Nov.
This area had burned before
57% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 592 ha in 2016.
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
-
Nkhotakota where it started1,009 ha reached on 10 Nov0.2 %
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2015Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2015, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Nov | 29.2 °C | 36 % | 42 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 11 Nov | 29.9 °C | 37 % | 42 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 12 Nov | 27.3 °C | 55 % | 36 km/h | 3.3 mm | Very low 3 |
| 13 Nov | 28.5 °C | 39 % | 40 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 14 Nov | 30.2 °C | 30 % | 44 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 15 Nov | 30.0 °C | 30 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 16 Nov | 31.5 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 17 Nov | 32.1 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 18 Nov | 29.2 °C | 38 % | 46 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Nov | 28.6 °C | 44 % | 43 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 20 Nov | 26.7 °C | 56 % | 36 km/h | 8.1 mm | Very low 2 |
| 21 Nov | 26.9 °C | 51 % | 35 km/h | 1.1 mm | Very low 5 |
| 22 Nov | 28.5 °C | 44 % | 38 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 23 Nov after | 29.0 °C | 46 % | 36 km/h | 2.0 mm | Low 6 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 15.7, a minimum humidity of 36% and 4 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 23.
FWI at the start
15.7
Minimum humidity
36 %
Days without rain
4
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Nkhotakota fire, November 2017
1,005 ha
13 days
FWI 15.7
Min. humidity 36 %
Nkhotakota fire, October 2018
1,574 ha
12 days
FWI 15.5
Min. humidity 36 %
40 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.6 mm on 9 Nov.
Nkhotakota fire, October 2018
1,802 ha
9 days
FWI 16.3
Min. humidity 36 %
36 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 4 Nov.
Nkhotakota fire, October 2021
3,513 ha
27 days
FWI 15.7
Min. humidity 37 %
20 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 7.2 mm on 25 Nov.
Nkhotakota fire, October 2018
1,131 ha
15 days
FWI 15.9
Min. humidity 38 %
2 km away, in 2018
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.5 mm on 9 Nov.
Nkhata Bay fire, October 2021
5,127 ha
22 days
FWI 17.0
Min. humidity 35 %
45 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.4 mm on 19 Nov.
What happened to them
- 13 days
- median duration
- 1,675 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.2 mm
- rain at the end (median; 16 of 23 had it)
It stayed below its twins: 1,005 ha against a median of 1,675 ha. It lasted 13 days, against 13 days.
In 7 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.2 mm.
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
2.0 mmfirst rain
23 Novthe day after it ended
46km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 22 Nov, and on 23 Nov 2.0 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 23, with a median of 2.2 mm.
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 · 3 Nov 2017
After · 29 Nov 2017
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 · 35Every 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
- 5,356 haNkhotakota7 October 2019 · 34 days · 5 km away
- 16,747 haMzimba 5 October 2026 · 32 days · 6 km away
- 6,035 haNkhotakota22 September 2020 · 24 days · 6 km away
- 5,598 haNkhotakota8 October 2018 · 19 days · 19 km away
- 8,368 haNkhata Bay7 October 2023 · 26 days · 28 km away
- 8,200 haNkhata Bay6 October 2016 · 24 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nkhotakota fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 10 November 2017 to 22 November 2017 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 November 2017 to 18 November 2017.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,005 hectares (10.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Nkhotakota (1,009 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Malawi (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 23. Their median duration was 13 days and their median area 1,675 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 7 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.2 mm.
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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 18 November 2017 → 22 November 2017.
- Start date: 11 November 2017 → 10 November 2017.
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 adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 11 November 2017 to 18 November 2017. 35 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.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2015, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.