Chama fire, July 2026 Chama
The fire started on 29 July 2026 in Chama, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,563 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 270th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 267 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.
- Burnt area
- 4,563ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 29 Jul 2026 – 12 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 29 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 101
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 530MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
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
-
Chama where it started4,580 ha reached on 23 Jul0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Jul | 28.8 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 30 Jul | 28.7 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Jul | 28.6 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 1 Aug | 27.1 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Aug | 27.7 °C | 36 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 3 Aug | 27.6 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Aug | 27.6 °C | 46 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 5 Aug | 27.5 °C | 47 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Aug | 28.8 °C | 44 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 7 Aug | 29.6 °C | 46 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 8 Aug | 29.6 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 9 Aug | 29.8 °C | 35 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 10 Aug | 31.8 °C | 30 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 11 Aug | 32.3 °C | 29 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 12 Aug | 31.9 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 42 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 14 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 45 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 38 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 17 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 34 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 18 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 33 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 19 Aug after | 29.2 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Aug after | 29.4 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 21 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Aug after | 30.5 °C | 34 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 7 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 43 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 101Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chama fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 July 2026 and 12 August 2026: 15 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 4,563 hectares (45.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chama (4,580 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zambia (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
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 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.