MW · Countries

Wildfires in Malawi

732 fires over 1,000 hectares with a perimeter estimated by GWIS since 2016, adding up to 1,947,477 hectares burned across 21 districts.

Only fires of 1,000 ha or more get an entry: smaller ones are not in the lists or the entry totals, but they are in the GWIS yearly series.

These figures leave out 3 provisional pages, seen only as heat detections and still without a perimeter. They appear in the lists, marked.

The season, week by week

Copernicus GWIS

Malawi, at this point in the year: 221,719 hectares, below the 2012–2025 average of 672,521.

2026 average 2012–2025 lowest and highest

2012–2026

Yearly average 2016–2025785,165 ha

Worst year2016 1,073,604 ha

With a page here732 since 2016

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›See the year-by-year table

Year	Fires	hectares	Source
2026	1,085	224,548	GWIS
2025	1,666	489,643	GWIS
2024	2,072	566,488	GWIS
2023	2,575	663,185	GWIS
2022	2,796	719,324	GWIS
2021	3,453	809,451	GWIS
2020	3,630	916,475	GWIS
2019	3,654	880,030	GWIS
2018	4,401	930,012	GWIS
2017	3,396	803,434	GWIS
2016	4,197	1,073,604	GWIS
2015	4,027	976,728	GWIS
2014	3,923	941,733	GWIS
2013	4,688	1,080,611	GWIS
2012	4,811	1,204,588	GWIS

National estimates from Copernicus GWIS, rebuilt from heat detections since 2012.

Hectares with a perimeter estimated by GWIS by the fire’s starting month, and the largest fire of each year.

	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Σ	Largest of the year
2026			14k	26k	20k	19k	179k			257,096	Nkhotakota 27,789 ha
2025					19k	40k	251k	11k		320,871	Nkhata Bay 123,561 ha
2024		2k	1k	29k		7k	92k			131,174	Nkhata Bay 63,964 ha
2023			1k	2k	1k	4k	118k			127,088	Nkhata Bay 64,817 ha
2022				1k	4k	14k	104k	6k		128,342	Nkhata Bay 28,618 ha
2021			1k	5k	14k	11k	55k	30k	2k	119,143	Nkhata Bay 7,089 ha
2020	1k	5k		1k	22k	57k	89k	18k		192,929	Nkhata Bay 20,590 ha
2019		3k		4k	35k	19k	89k	1k		151,946	Nkhata Bay 14,115 ha
2018			2k	2k	23k	41k	79k			147,859	Chikwawa 9,003 ha
2017			2k		21k	26k	88k	4k		140,916	Nkhata Bay 13,194 ha
2016			1k	20k	9k	100k	94k	6k		230,113	Nkhata Bay 69,845 ha