How long did the Tutume fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 September 2017 and 25 September 2017: 4 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 4,776 hectares (47.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Tutume (4,799 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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.

BW · Botswana · 2017-09-22 → 2017-09-25

Tutume fire, 22 September 2017 Tutume

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2017, 12:14 UTC

The fire started on 22 September 2017 in Tutume, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,776 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 64th largest in Central District since 2016 (of 205 with a page). Number 81 in Botswana in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area: 4,776ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 4days; 22 Sept 2017 – 25 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; subdistricts
Started on: 22 Sept; 2017
Heat detections: 171; in a single hotspot: 57 MW
Danger at start: 51; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 1.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 25 Sept 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Sept25 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

22232425

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

44km/h · peak gust

12%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 28 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Tutume where it started

4,799 ha reached on 22 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)
22 Sept	34.6 °C	21 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
23 Sept	36.3 °C	14 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
24 Sept	35.5 °C	19 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
25 Sept	37.1 °C	12 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
26 Sept after	36.7 °C	14 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
27 Sept after	36.9 °C	15 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 63
28 Sept after	34.5 °C	24 %	44 km/h	2.2 mm	High 34

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 15 Sept 2017

After · 2 Oct 2017

Before After

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 · 171Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Botswana ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tutume fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 September 2017 and 25 September 2017: 4 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 4,776 hectares (47.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Tutume (4,799 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 58, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned