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Rufunsa fire, 17 October 2019 Rufunsa, Luangwa

Out · last detection 27 Oct 2019, 23:36 UTC

The fire started on 17 October 2019 in Rufunsa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,833 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 13th largest in Lusaka since 2016 (of 77 with a page). Number 43 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.

Burnt area
8,833ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
17 Oct 2019 – 26 Oct 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
17 Oct
2019
Heat detections
406
in a single hotspot: 91 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Oct 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Oct26 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
45km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,881 ha in 2017, 3,096 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,420 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Rufunsa where it started
    7,739 ha reached on 17 Oct
    0.8 %
  2. Luangwa
    1,157 ha reached on 22 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)
17 Oct 31.5 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Oct 33.4 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Oct 35.8 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Oct 37.4 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Oct 39.2 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Oct 40.3 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Oct 39.8 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Oct 39.9 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Oct 39.0 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Oct 39.6 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
27 Oct after 40.0 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Oct after 40.9 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Oct after 41.3 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Oct after 39.1 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
31 Oct after 36.9 °C 21 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
1 Nov after 35.2 °C 31 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Nov after 33.9 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Nov after 36.1 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Nov after 37.1 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Nov after 34.2 °C 31 % 51 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 · 10 Oct 2019
After · 2 Nov 2019

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 · 406Every 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 17 October 2019 and 26 October 2019: 10 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 8,833 hectares (88.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rufunsa (7,739 ha, 0.8 %); Luangwa (1,157 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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

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.