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Solwezi fire, July 2023 Solwezi, Mushindano

Out · last detection 2 Aug 2023, 11:08 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2023 in Solwezi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,383 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 215th largest in North-Western since 2016 (of 286 with a page). Number 137 in Zambia in 2023, of 165.

Burnt area
3,383ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
28 Jul 2023 – 1 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
28 Jul
2023
Heat detections
87
in a single hotspot: 43 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
781MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul1 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2829303112

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
37km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,299 ha in 2016, 397 ha in 2018, 830 ha in 2020, 673 ha in 2021, 26 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,955 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Solwezi where it started
    3,021 ha reached on 28 Jul
    0.9 %
  2. Mushindano
    384 ha reached on 30 Jul
    0.0 %

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)
28 Jul 27.1 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jul 29.1 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Jul 29.9 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
31 Jul 29.6 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug 27.8 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Aug after 26.0 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Aug after 25.2 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Aug after 24.5 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Aug after 25.4 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Aug after 26.7 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Aug after 26.2 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Aug after 25.4 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Aug after 27.1 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 Aug after 25.6 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Aug after 26.4 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jul 2023
After · 8 Aug 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 · 87Every 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 Solwezi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 July 2023 and 1 August 2023: 5 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 3,383 hectares (33.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Solwezi (3,021 ha, 0.9 %); Mushindano (384 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.9 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.

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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.