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Samfya fire, 19 August 2018 Samfya, Milengi

Out · last detection 29 Aug 2018, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 19 August 2018 in Samfya, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 21,038 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 70th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 12 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Burnt area
21,038ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
19 Aug 2018 – 28 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
19 Aug
2018
Heat detections
731
in a single hotspot: 229 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
11.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Aug28 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1920212223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
45km/h · peak gust
14%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: 12,185 ha in 2016, 6,098 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,842 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Samfya where it started
    11,735 ha reached on 13 Aug
    3.6 %
  2. Milengi
    9,458 ha reached on 15 Aug
    1.6 %

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)
19 Aug 28.0 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Aug 28.0 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug 28.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Aug 29.6 °C 23 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug 30.7 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Aug 29.4 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Aug 29.6 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Aug 29.2 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Aug 30.5 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Aug 29.7 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Aug after 27.4 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Aug after 27.7 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug after 27.8 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
1 Sept after 28.5 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept after 30.0 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Sept after 30.9 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Sept after 31.0 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Sept after 31.3 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Sept after 30.7 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Sept after 31.7 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Aug 2018
After · 4 Sept 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 · 731Every 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 Samfya fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 August 2018 and 28 August 2018: 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 21,038 hectares (210.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Samfya (11,735 ha, 3.6 %); Milengi (9,458 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % 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.