How long did the Rufunsa fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2018 and 12 October 2018: 28 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 23,797 hectares (238.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luangwa (18,762 ha, 4.8 %); Rufunsa (5,203 ha, 0.5 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.

ZM · Zambia · 2018-09-15 → 2018-10-12

Rufunsa fire, September 2018 Luangwa, Rufunsa

Out · last detection 11 Oct 2018, 11:31 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2018 in Rufunsa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 23,797 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Lusaka since 2016 (of 77 with a page). Number 10 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Burnt area: 23,797ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 28days; 15 Sept 2018 – 12 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 15 Sept; 2018
Heat detections: 949; in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start: 43; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 4.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 11 Oct 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept12 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021222324252627282930234567891011

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

64km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

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: 1,047 ha in 2016, 1,731 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

Luangwa

18,762 ha reached on 17 Sept

4.8 %
Rufunsa where it started

5,203 ha reached on 15 Sept

0.5 %

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)
15 Sept	34.9 °C	22 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
16 Sept	35.2 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
17 Sept	35.2 °C	25 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
18 Sept	36.3 °C	20 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
19 Sept	35.8 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
20 Sept	35.0 °C	22 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
21 Sept	33.8 °C	31 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
22 Sept	33.3 °C	27 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
23 Sept	32.3 °C	28 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
24 Sept	33.3 °C	31 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
25 Sept	34.4 °C	26 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
26 Sept	35.6 °C	21 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
27 Sept	37.0 °C	26 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
28 Sept	35.9 °C	26 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
29 Sept	36.0 °C	21 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
30 Sept	31.7 °C	34 %	64 km/h	0.1 mm	Extreme 51
1 Oct	28.8 °C	37 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
2 Oct	30.9 °C	34 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
3 Oct	33.9 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
4 Oct	34.5 °C	28 %	47 km/h	0.2 mm	Very high 44
5 Oct	30.9 °C	40 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
6 Oct	31.3 °C	35 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
7 Oct	32.1 °C	26 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
8 Oct	30.9 °C	20 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
9 Oct	30.5 °C	29 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
10 Oct	32.3 °C	26 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
11 Oct	34.5 °C	25 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
12 Oct	36.4 °C	19 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
13 Oct after	36.7 °C	24 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
14 Oct after	35.1 °C	31 %	47 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
15 Oct after	37.9 °C	25 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
16 Oct after	36.0 °C	25 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
17 Oct after	36.6 °C	28 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
18 Oct after	39.5 °C	19 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
19 Oct after	35.1 °C	36 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
20 Oct after	33.0 °C	47 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
21 Oct after	30.0 °C	41 %	60 km/h	0.4 mm	Very high 44
22 Oct after	27.4 °C	36 %	53 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Sept 2018

After · 19 Oct 2018

Before After

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 · 949Every 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

All fires in Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Rufunsa fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 September 2018 and 12 October 2018: 28 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 23,797 hectares (238.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Luangwa (18,762 ha, 4.8 %); Rufunsa (5,203 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned