Chembe fire, 6 August 2026 Chembe
The fire started on 6 August 2026 in Chembe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,077 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 146th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 94 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.
- Burnt area
- 9,077ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 6 Aug 2026 – 18 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 157
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,336 ha in 2016, 3,203 ha in 2017, 3,635 ha in 2018, 2,732 ha in 2019, 381 ha in 2020, 2,850 ha in 2021, 697 ha in 2022, 2,660 ha in 2023, 588 ha in 2024, 2,988 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,151 ha that had burned before.
- 3,635 ha Chembe fire, August 2018 4,297 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,203 ha Chembe fire, August 2017 4,256 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,009 ha Chembe fire, August 2016 3,922 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,927 ha Chembe fire, August 2025 3,423 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chembe where it started8,979 ha reached on 1 Aug4.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Aug | 27.4 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 Aug | 28.1 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Aug | 27.5 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Aug | 28.6 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 10 Aug | 30.5 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Aug | 30.5 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 12 Aug | 29.3 °C | 30 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Aug | 26.9 °C | 39 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Aug | 25.1 °C | 41 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Aug | 25.4 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 16 Aug | 25.5 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Aug | 26.5 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Aug | 27.6 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 21 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Aug after | 29.5 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 31 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Aug after | 29.7 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 26 Aug after | 30.7 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Aug after | 28.9 °C | 40 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 28 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 38 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
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 16 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 113 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 53: 3.5 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 · 157Every 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 6 August 2026 and 18 August 2026: 13 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 9,077 hectares (90.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chembe (8,979 ha, 4.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.