Samfya fire, August 2023 Samfya
The fire started on 21 August 2023 in Samfya, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,723 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 386th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 107 in Zambia in 2023, of 165.
- Burnt area
- 3,723ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 21 Aug 2023 – 24 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 21 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 117
- in a single hotspot: 75 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 671 ha in 2016, 1,121 ha in 2017, 1,660 ha in 2018, 1,384 ha in 2019, 393 ha in 2020, 318 ha in 2021, 2,034 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,395 ha that had burned before.
- 1,885 ha Samfya fire, August 2022 3,416 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,121 ha Samfya fire, August 2017 9,864 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 893 ha Samfya fire, August 2018 4,032 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 138 ha Samfya fire, August 2016 11,697 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5 ha Milengi fire, August 2018 6,852 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Samfya where it started3,749 ha reached on 20 Aug1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Aug | 31.3 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 22 Aug | 32.0 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Aug | 31.2 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Aug | 31.2 °C | 21 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 25 Aug after | 30.4 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Aug after | 32.4 °C | 14 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 28 Aug after | 26.2 °C | 37 % | 61 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 50 |
| 29 Aug after | 23.0 °C | 39 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Aug after | 26.1 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 31 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 1 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 2 Sept after | 30.3 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 3 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 117Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Samfya fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 August 2023 and 24 August 2023: 4 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 3,723 hectares (37.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Samfya (3,749 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.
Report an error
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.