Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Samfya fire, September 2023 Samfya, Milengi

Out · last detection 9 Sept 2023, 10:55 UTC

The fire started on 1 September 2023 in Samfya, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,748 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 191th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 39 in Zambia in 2023, of 165.

Burnt area
6,748ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
1 Sept 2023 – 8 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
1 Sept
2023
Heat detections
262
in a single hotspot: 112 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Sept8 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

123456789

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
42km/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

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,027 ha in 2016, 1,879 ha in 2017, 4,860 ha in 2018, 365 ha in 2019, 1,273 ha in 2020, 440 ha in 2021, 2,469 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,909 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Samfya where it started
    3,620 ha reached on 1 Sept
    1.1 %
  2. Milengi
    3,176 ha reached on 2 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)
1 Sept 29.7 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Sept 30.5 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Sept 31.0 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
4 Sept 30.5 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Sept 30.0 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Sept 31.3 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Sept 31.9 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Sept 31.8 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Sept after 29.9 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Sept after 29.6 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Sept after 32.1 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Sept after 33.2 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Sept after 28.6 °C 35 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept after 28.2 °C 33 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Sept after 31.2 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Sept after 31.9 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Sept after 32.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Sept after 32.7 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 25 Aug 2023
After · 15 Sept 2023

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 · 262Every 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 1 September 2023 and 8 September 2023: 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 6,748 hectares (67.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Samfya (3,620 ha, 1.1 %); Milengi (3,176 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.