Skip to content
worldfires
BW · Botswana · →

Tutume fire, 9 September 2017 Tutume

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2017, 11:36 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2017 in Tutume, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,808 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 80th largest in Central District since 2016 (of 205 with a page). Number 103 in Botswana in 2017, of 196.

The power measured by the satellite is low (20.4 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
3,808ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
9 Sept 2017 – 10 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
9 Sept
2017
Heat detections
120
in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
757MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

91011

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
32km/h · peak gust
11%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
    3,825 ha reached on 9 Sept
    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)
9 Sept 34.7 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
10 Sept 33.7 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Sept after 33.4 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Sept after 34.0 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Sept after 34.6 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Sept after 35.8 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
15 Sept after 34.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
16 Sept after 35.5 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Sept after 36.4 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Sept after 35.8 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
19 Sept after 34.2 °C 20 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Sept after 35.0 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Sept 2017
After · 17 Sept 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 · 120Every 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 9 September 2017 and 10 September 2017: 2 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 3,808 hectares (38.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tutume (3,825 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.