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Rufunsa fire, October 2018 Rufunsa, Kafue

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2018, 23:05 UTC

The fire started on 8 October 2018 in Rufunsa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,893 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 42th largest in Lusaka since 2016 (of 77 with a page). Number 125 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.7 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
3,893ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
8 Oct 2018 – 15 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Oct
2018
Heat detections
136
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
508MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Oct15 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

89101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
52km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

31% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,249 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Rufunsa where it started
    3,768 ha reached on 8 Oct
    0.4 %
  2. Kafue
    156 ha reached on 13 Oct
    0.0 %

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)
8 Oct 27.2 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Oct 26.8 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Oct 28.4 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Oct 30.6 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 Oct 32.4 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Oct 32.5 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 43
14 Oct 31.4 °C 31 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Oct 34.2 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Oct after 32.2 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Oct after 32.6 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Oct after 35.6 °C 20 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Oct after 31.5 °C 37 % 49 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 39
20 Oct after 29.8 °C 47 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Oct after 25.8 °C 43 % 65 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 40
22 Oct after 22.9 °C 41 % 60 km/h 0.3 mm High 38
23 Oct after 23.2 °C 35 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Oct after 24.8 °C 36 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Oct after 27.0 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Oct 2018
After · 22 Oct 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 · 136Every 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 Rufunsa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 October 2018 and 15 October 2018: 8 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 3,893 hectares (38.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rufunsa (3,768 ha, 0.4 %); Kafue (156 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.