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Tutume fire, 6 September 2017 Tutume

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2017, 22:48 UTC

The fire started on 6 September 2017 in Tutume, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 28,341 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 4th largest in Central District since 2016 (of 204 with a page). Number 10 in Botswana in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
28,341ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
6 Sept 2017 – 27 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
6 Sept
2017
Heat detections
1,248
in a single hotspot: 196 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
18.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112131415161718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
46km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.2 mm on 6 Oct.

This area had burned before

3% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 750 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Tutume where it started
    28,455 ha reached on 6 Sept
    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)
6 Sept 30.5 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Sept 32.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Sept 34.1 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Sept 34.6 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
10 Sept 33.8 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
11 Sept 33.5 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Sept 33.9 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
13 Sept 34.4 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Sept 36.0 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Sept 34.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
16 Sept 35.3 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
17 Sept 36.3 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Sept 35.6 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
19 Sept 33.9 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept 34.9 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Sept 33.7 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Sept 34.0 °C 22 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Sept 36.0 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Sept 34.1 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Sept 36.0 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Sept 37.2 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
27 Sept 37.8 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
28 Sept after 33.5 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.9 mm Very high 44
29 Sept after 30.6 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Sept after 32.5 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Oct after 32.2 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 40
2 Oct after 33.4 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Oct after 34.8 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Oct after 35.5 °C 19 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
5 Oct after 35.0 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
6 Oct after 28.3 °C 37 % 38 km/h 2.2 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Aug 2017
After · 4 Oct 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 · 1,248Every 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 6 September 2017 and 27 September 2017: 22 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 28,341 hectares (283.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tutume (28,455 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 63, class 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.