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Nyimba fire, October 2021 Nyimba

Out · last detection 25 Oct 2021, 11:20 UTC

The fire started on 10 October 2021 in Nyimba, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,613 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 10th largest in Eastern since 2016 (of 59 with a page). Number 54 in Zambia in 2021, of 213.

Burnt area
6,613ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
10 Oct 2021 – 24 Oct 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
10 Oct
2021
Heat detections
207
in a single hotspot: 37 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Oct 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Oct24 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

10111213141516171819202122232425

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
49km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,803 ha in 2016, 1,209 ha in 2017, 219 ha in 2018, 2,314 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,395 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Nyimba where it started
    6,658 ha reached on 8 Oct
    0.6 %

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)
10 Oct 37.7 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Oct 30.0 °C 32 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Oct 28.2 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 32
13 Oct 31.3 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Oct 32.6 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Oct 35.4 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Oct 35.9 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Oct 37.9 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Oct 37.8 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Oct 28.0 °C 46 % 49 km/h 0.9 mm High 27
20 Oct 28.9 °C 42 % 44 km/h 0.3 mm High 29
21 Oct 30.1 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Oct 34.9 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Oct 37.6 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Oct 38.0 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Oct after 37.5 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Oct after 35.8 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
27 Oct after 33.9 °C 32 % 49 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 40
28 Oct after 31.1 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Oct after 32.0 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Oct after 36.0 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Oct after 36.7 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Nov after 37.7 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Nov after 36.2 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Nov after 36.9 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Oct 2021
After · 31 Oct 2021

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 · 207Every 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 10 October 2021 and 24 October 2021: 15 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 6,613 hectares (66.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Nyimba (6,658 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 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.