Nyimba fire, 2 August 2018 Nyimba
The fire started on 2 August 2018 in Nyimba, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,395 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 8th largest in Eastern since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 44 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.
- Burnt area
- 7,395ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 2 Aug 2018 – 6 Aug 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 2 Aug
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 198
- in a single hotspot: 89 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 512MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 240 ha in 2016, 657 ha in 2017.
What happened to each town
-
Nyimba where it started7,446 ha reached on 31 Jul0.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Aug | 30.8 °C | 29 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 3 Aug | 32.5 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Aug | 29.6 °C | 36 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Aug | 30.6 °C | 30 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 6 Aug | 32.5 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 Aug after | 33.2 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Aug after | 34.6 °C | 23 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 9 Aug after | 33.7 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 10 Aug after | 32.6 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Aug after | 33.2 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Aug after | 32.3 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 14 Aug after | 32.6 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Aug after | 32.7 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Aug after | 32.8 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 198Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 26,082 haNyimba18 September 2022 · 24 days · 18 km away
- 6,292 haNyimbaOctober 2017 · 7 days · 26 km away
- 28,146 haNyimba1 September 2016 · 16 days · 28 km away
- 12,012 haNyimba8 September 2016 · 14 days · 30 km away
- 12,248 haNyimba29 September 2022 · 13 days · 31 km away
- 6,613 haNyimbaOctober 2021 · 15 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nyimba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 August 2018 and 6 August 2018: 5 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 7,395 hectares (74.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Nyimba (7,446 ha, 0.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.5 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.
Report an error
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.