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Tutume fire, 3 November 2017 Tutume

Out · last detection 6 Nov 2017, 12:27 UTC

The fire started on 3 November 2017 in Tutume, Botswana, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,539 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 93th largest in Central District since 2016 (of 204 with a page). Number 115 in Botswana in 2017, of 196.

Burnt area
3,539ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
3 Nov 2017 – 6 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
1
subdistricts
Started on
3 Nov
2017
Heat detections
123
in a single hotspot: 81 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Nov6 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

3456

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
43km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.6 mm on 10 Nov.

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
    3,552 ha reached on 3 Nov
    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)
3 Nov 35.5 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Nov 35.1 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Nov 33.3 °C 12 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Nov 35.2 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Nov after 37.4 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Nov after 38.9 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Nov after 35.1 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 44
10 Nov after 31.7 °C 38 % 49 km/h 2.6 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Oct 2017
After · 13 Nov 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 · 123Every 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 3 November 2017 and 6 November 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 3,539 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tutume (3,552 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.