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Tutume fire, 7 August 2017 Tutume

Out · last detection 7 Aug 2017, 23:44 UTC

The fire started on 7 August 2017 in Tutume, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,547 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 92th largest in Central District since 2016 (of 204 with a page). Number 114 in Botswana in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
3,547ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
7 Aug 2017 – 7 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
7 Aug
2017
Heat detections
94
in a single hotspot: 52 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Aug7 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

7

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

The weather it burned in

24°high
30km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 days 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
    3,570 ha reached on 7 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
7 Aug 24.2 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Aug after 23.6 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Aug after 21.8 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Aug after 21.0 °C 37 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Aug after 22.4 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Aug after 23.3 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Aug after 23.6 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Aug after 23.4 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Aug after 23.6 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Aug after 27.1 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Aug after 21.6 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 31 Jul 2017
After · 14 Aug 2017

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 · 94Every 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 7 August 2017 and 7 August 2017: 1 day 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 3,547 hectares (35.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tutume (3,570 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.2 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, class 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.