Burned area
satellite only6,299ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 24 Jul 2016 – 27 Jul 2016
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
ZM · Zambia · –
Sesheke fire, 24 July 2016 Sioma, Sesheke
Out · last detection 27 Jul 2016, 11:44 UTC
The fire started on 24 July 2016 in Sesheke, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,299 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 18th largest in Western since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 73 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-11-15matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only4days
24 Jul 2016 to 27 Jul 2016: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 27 Jul 2016, 11:44 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only24 Jul 2016
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 24 Jul 2016
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only151
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 138 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 24 Jul 2016 – 27 Jul 2016
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only1,850MW
Total radiative power on 26 July 2016; hotspots that day: 78.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 26 Jul 2016
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model46.0FWI · very high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 24 Jul 2016, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model29.6°C · 12% RH
High of 29.6 °C and minimum humidity of 12% on 27 July 2016; gusts of 32 km/h on 25 July 2016.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 24 Jul 2016 – 27 Jul 2016
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
logName: Sioma → Sesheke.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
What was saved on 15 November 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 6,299 ha
- Dates
- 24 Jul 2016 – 27 Jul 2016
- Name
- Sesheke
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/sesheke-2016-07?v=2026-11-15A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire sesheke-2016-07.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-07-24 | 32 | 649 | 27.6 | 8.2 | 16 | 9.7 | 28.4 | 0 | 46 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-07-25 | 37 | 586 | 28.6 | 11 | 14 | 13.3 | 32.4 | 0 | 49.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-07-26 | 78 | 1,850 | 29 | 11.5 | 17 | 11.6 | 22.3 | 0 | 39.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2016-07-27 | 4 | 20 | 29.6 | 12.6 | 12 | 10.3 | 27 | 0 | 51.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2016-07-28 | 0 | 0 | 30.1 | 13.1 | 18 | 13.2 | 31 | 0 | 52.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2016-07-29 | 0 | 0 | 30.6 | 15.6 | 11 | 11.8 | 29.9 | 0 | 57.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2016-07-30 | 0 | 0 | 30.9 | 16.3 | 7 | 13.7 | 32.8 | 0 | 66.5 | extremo | 0 |
| 2016-07-31 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 12.4 | 12 | 11.8 | 30.2 | 0 | 63 | extremo | 0 |
| 2016-08-01 | 0 | 0 | 30.7 | 14.2 | 17 | 12.8 | 24.5 | 0 | 42.6 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2016-08-02 | 0 | 0 | 29.8 | 14.7 | 10 | 13 | 29.2 | 0 | 57.3 | extremo | 0 |
| 2016-08-03 | 0 | 0 | 30.3 | 10.9 | 8 | 13.8 | 24.1 | 0 | 51.7 | extremo | 0 |
| 2016-08-04 | 0 | 0 | 26.9 | 14.1 | 15 | 16.3 | 35.6 | 0 | 60 | extremo | 0 |
| 2016-08-05 | 0 | 0 | 28 | 12.8 | 13 | 13.9 | 31.7 | 0 | 56.5 | extremo | 0 |
| 2016-08-06 | 0 | 0 | 27.3 | 11.8 | 22 | 14.9 | 36 | 0 | 54 | extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 6,299ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 24 Jul 2016 – 27 Jul 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Jul
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 151
- in a single hotspot: 138 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 776MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
24 Jul27 Jul
27 Jul 2016
How it evolved, day by day
24 Jul
25 Jul
26 Jul
27 Jul
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
30°high
32km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
3,252 ha0.4 %
-
Sesheke where it started3,085 ha0.3 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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)
Started with 60 days without rain: 91 % of the area in Zambia
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Jul | 27.6 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 25 Jul | 28.6 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 26 Jul | 29.0 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Jul | 29.6 °C | 12 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 28 Jul after | 30.1 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 29 Jul after | 30.6 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 30 Jul after | 30.9 °C | 7 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 31 Jul after | 31.0 °C | 12 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 1 Aug after | 30.7 °C | 17 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 2 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 10 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 3 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 8 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 4 Aug after | 26.9 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 5 Aug after | 28.0 °C | 13 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 6 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 46.0, a minimum humidity of 16% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 36.
FWI at the start
46.0
Minimum humidity
16 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Sesheke fire, 24 July 2016
6,299 ha
4 days
FWI 46.0
Min. humidity 16 %
Kongola fire, September 2022
3,232 ha
10 days
FWI 44.6
Min. humidity 16 %
119 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Dirico fire, September 2021
5,687 ha
9 days
FWI 46.4
Min. humidity 16 %
206 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Rivungo fire, September 2021
25,287 ha
24 days
FWI 46.3
Min. humidity 15 %
164 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Itezhi-Tezhi fire, August 2020
4,504 ha
11 days
FWI 45.7
Min. humidity 16 %
246 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Sesheke fire, August 2017
3,864 ha
14 days
FWI 43.4
Min. humidity 15 %
73 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 9 days
- median duration
- 3,948 ha
- median area
- 11 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- —
- rain at the end (median; 0 of 36 had it)
It was 1.6 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 4 days, against 9 days.
Only 8 of its 36 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
32km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 27 Jul, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 36 twins had rain when they ended.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 17 Jul 2016
After · 3 Aug 2016
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 151Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,637 haSioma29 September 2018 · 12 days · 3 km away
- 11,109 haSeshekeJuly 2022 · 12 days · 9 km away
- 5,107 haSesheke20 August 2026 · 8 days · 34 km away
- 5,031 haSiomaSeptember 2022 · 5 days · 35 km away
- 6,692 haSioma2 September 2021 · 8 days · 37 km away
- 11,079 haSiomaSeptember 2025 · 12 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Sesheke fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 July 2016 and 27 July 2016: 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 6,299 hectares (63.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Sioma (3,252 ha, 0.4 %); Sesheke (3,085 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 36. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 3,948 ha; 11 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 8 of its 36 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
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
History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Name: Sioma → Sesheke.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 151 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.