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Tutume fire, August 2016 Tutume

Out · last detection 5 Sept 2016, 12:33 UTC

The fire started on 29 August 2016 in Tutume, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,530 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 34th largest in Central District since 2016 (of 205 with a page). Number 14 in Botswana in 2016, of 76.

Burnt area
6,530ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
29 Aug 2016 – 5 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
29 Aug
2016
Heat detections
200
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Aug5 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

29303112345

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
36km/h · peak gust
13%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. Tutume where it started
    6,553 ha reached on 29 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
29 Aug 30.2 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Aug 31.9 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug 31.4 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Sept 30.5 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Sept 29.0 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Sept 29.2 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Sept 31.3 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Sept 32.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Sept after 33.8 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Sept after 34.3 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Sept after 35.4 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
9 Sept after 36.3 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Sept after 36.1 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
11 Sept after 32.7 °C 19 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
12 Sept after 34.2 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
13 Sept after 34.9 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Sept after 33.7 °C 14 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
15 Sept after 34.2 °C 14 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Aug 2016
After · 12 Sept 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 · 200Every 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 Tutume fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 August 2016 and 5 September 2016: 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 6,530 hectares (65.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tutume (6,553 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.4 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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.