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Tuli fire, October 2016 Tuli

Out · last detection 8 Oct 2016, 23:26 UTC

The fire started on 4 October 2016 in Tuli, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,892 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 124th largest in Central District since 2016 (of 205 with a page). Number 57 in Botswana in 2016, of 76.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.2 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,892ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
4 Oct 2016 – 8 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
4 Oct
2016
Heat detections
102
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Oct8 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

4678

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
55km/h · peak gust
7%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.

What happened to each town

  1. Tuli where it started
    2,895 ha reached on 3 Oct
    0.6 %

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)
4 Oct 25.1 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
5 Oct 29.6 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Oct 36.4 °C 7 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Oct 40.3 °C 7 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
8 Oct 31.5 °C 28 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
9 Oct after 30.2 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Oct after 29.9 °C 34 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Oct after 36.5 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Oct after 40.2 °C 14 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
13 Oct after 28.3 °C 37 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Oct after 24.4 °C 53 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Oct after 34.1 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Oct after 40.1 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
17 Oct after 32.2 °C 22 % 53 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 66
18 Oct after 21.5 °C 60 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Sept 2016
After · 15 Oct 2016

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 · 102Every 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 Botswana ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tuli fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 October 2016 and 8 October 2016: 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 2,892 hectares (28.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tuli (2,895 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.3 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 78, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Botswana (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 (Public Domain). 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.