Chibombo fire, 17 August 2025 Chibombo, Ngabwe
The fire started on 17 August 2025 in Chibombo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,810 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 98th largest in Central since 2016 (of 401 with a page). Number 71 in Zambia in 2025, of 271.
- Burnt area
- 6,810ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 23days
- 17 Aug 2025 – 8 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 443
- in a single hotspot: 198 MW
- Danger at start
- 47
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 7.5GW
- 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
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,359 ha in 2016, 4,483 ha in 2019, 4,544 ha in 2020, 7,507 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,418 ha that had burned before.
- 4,544 ha Chibombo fire, October 2020 6,083 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,994 ha Chibombo fire, October 2024 4,622 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,458 ha Chibombo fire, August 2019 4,682 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chibombo where it started5,611 ha reached on 10 Aug0.7 %
-
1,230 ha reached on 16 Aug0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Aug | 29.6 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 18 Aug | 27.6 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 19 Aug | 27.9 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 20 Aug | 28.2 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Aug | 28.6 °C | 17 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 22 Aug | 30.5 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Aug | 31.6 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 24 Aug | 31.2 °C | 12 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 25 Aug | 31.5 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 26 Aug | 33.5 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Aug | 31.9 °C | 13 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 28 Aug | 31.9 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 29 Aug | 31.3 °C | 17 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 30 Aug | 31.8 °C | 15 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 31 Aug | 31.2 °C | 15 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 1 Sept | 31.4 °C | 11 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 2 Sept | 29.1 °C | 14 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 3 Sept | 29.6 °C | 19 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 4 Sept | 31.0 °C | 13 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 5 Sept | 31.9 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 6 Sept | 32.6 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 7 Sept | 33.4 °C | 13 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 8 Sept | 32.7 °C | 13 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 9 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 10 Sept after | 32.0 °C | 18 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 11 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 12 Sept after | 31.9 °C | 20 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 13 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 20 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 14 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 15 Sept after | 34.3 °C | 11 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 16 Sept after | 34.7 °C | 9 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 17 Sept after | 35.5 °C | 8 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 18 Sept after | 34.9 °C | 13 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
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 6 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 48 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 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 · 443Every 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 Chibombo fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2025 and 8 September 2025: 23 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 6,810 hectares (68.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chibombo (5,611 ha, 0.7 %); Ngabwe (1,230 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, class Extreme.
- 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.