Chembe fire, 9 August 2025 Chembe
The fire started on 9 August 2025 in Chembe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,423 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 443th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 207 in Zambia in 2025, of 271.
The power measured by the satellite is low (29.4 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
- 3,423ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 9 Aug 2025 – 16 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 9 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 109
- in a single hotspot: 29 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 736MW
- 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
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,286 ha in 2016, 1,921 ha in 2017, 1,489 ha in 2018, 818 ha in 2019, 1,942 ha in 2021, 1,306 ha in 2023, 109 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,304 ha that had burned before.
- 1,921 ha Chembe fire, August 2017 4,256 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,489 ha Chembe fire, August 2018 4,297 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,143 ha Chembe fire, August 2016 3,922 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chembe where it started3,443 ha reached on 8 Aug1.6 %
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 Aug | 28.4 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 10 Aug | 28.9 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Aug | 28.8 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Aug | 27.3 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Aug | 26.5 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Aug | 27.4 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 Aug | 28.7 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Aug | 29.4 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Aug after | 29.8 °C | 20 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 18 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Aug after | 27.5 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 Aug after | 29.1 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Aug after | 29.7 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Aug after | 30.2 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 24 Aug after | 29.6 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Aug after | 31.9 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Aug after | 32.9 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
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 13 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 102 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 54: 3.6 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 · 109Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Chembe fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 August 2025 and 16 August 2025: 8 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 3,423 hectares (34.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chembe (3,443 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.4 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 42 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 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.