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Nyimba fire, October 2018 Nyimba

Out · last detection 2 Nov 2018, 22:27 UTC

The fire started on 25 October 2018 in Nyimba, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,183 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 51th largest in Eastern since 2016 (of 59 with a page). Number 186 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

The power measured by the satellite is low (17.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,183ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
25 Oct 2018 – 2 Nov 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
25 Oct
2018
Heat detections
93
in a single hotspot: 18 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
362MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Nov 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Oct2 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2526272829303112

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
39km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,089 ha in 2016, 12 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Nyimba where it started
    3,202 ha reached on 25 Oct
    0.3 %

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)
25 Oct 31.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Oct 33.4 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Oct 33.4 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Oct 32.2 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Oct 32.6 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Oct 34.1 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Oct 37.0 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Nov 37.0 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Nov 37.8 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Nov after 33.7 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Nov after 31.2 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Nov after 33.8 °C 26 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Nov after 36.8 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Nov after 37.9 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Nov after 28.8 °C 42 % 49 km/h 0.4 mm High 38
9 Nov after 28.3 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Nov after 30.9 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Nov after 33.2 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Nov after 33.2 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Oct 2018
After · 9 Nov 2018

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 · 93Every 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 Nyimba fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 October 2018 and 2 November 2018: 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 3,183 hectares (31.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Nyimba (3,202 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.