Skip to content
worldfires
en
ZM · Zambia · –

Chilubi fire, 5 August 2026 Luwingu, Kasama, Chilubi

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2026, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 5 August 2026 in Chilubi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 52 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 68,523 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

Number 11 in Zambia in 2026, of 623.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in August 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Luwingu · 2021Luwingu · 2017Luwingu · 2019Luwingu · 2022

Burnt area
68,523ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
52days
5 Aug 2026 – 25 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
5 Aug
2026
Heat detections
1,973
in a single hotspot: 280 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Average daily power
445MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Aug25 Sept
25 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

5 Aug 2026 · 28 MW · 4 6 Aug 2026 · 73 MW · 9 7 Aug 2026 · 61 MW · 10 8 Aug 2026 · 288 MW · 26 9 Aug 2026 · 36 MW · 6 10 Aug 2026 · 15 MW · 1 11 Aug 2026 · 95 MW · 6 12 Aug 2026 · 658 MW · 49 13 Aug 2026 · 768 MW · 46 14 Aug 2026 · 342 MW · 32 15 Aug 2026 · 570 MW · 31 16 Aug 2026 · 563 MW · 94 17 Aug 2026 · 1,982 MW · 127 18 Aug 2026 · 7 MW · 6 19 Aug 2026 · 1,367 MW · 95 20 Aug 2026 · 481 MW · 51 21 Aug 2026 · 720 MW · 58 22 Aug 2026 · 260 MW · 24 23 Aug 2026 · 24 MW · 8 24 Aug 2026 · 792 MW · 69 25 Aug 2026 · 598 MW · 57 26 Aug 2026 · 274 MW · 23 27 Aug 2026 · 440 MW · 40 28 Aug 2026 · 387 MW · 47 29 Aug 2026 · 1,109 MW · 104 30 Aug 2026 · 1,845 MW · 98 31 Aug 2026 · 1,173 MW · 85 1 Sept 2026 · 500 MW · 60 2 Sept 2026 · 1,249 MW · 95 3 Sept 2026 · 691 MW · 64 4 Sept 2026 · 544 MW · 72 5 Sept 2026 · 708 MW · 62 6 Sept 2026 · 349 MW · 22 7 Sept 2026 · 459 MW · 41 8 Sept 2026 · 419 MW · 52 9 Sept 2026 · 67 MW · 10 10 Sept 2026 · 325 MW · 30 11 Sept 2026 · 88 MW · 17 12 Sept 2026 · 209 MW · 37 13 Sept 2026 · 199 MW · 17 14 Sept 2026 · 587 MW · 58 15 Sept 2026 · 209 MW · 20 16 Sept 2026 · 218 MW · 20 17 Sept 2026 · 125 MW · 19 18 Sept 2026 · 233 MW · 21 20 Sept 2026 · 132 MW · 13 21 Sept 2026 · 39 MW · 6 22 Sept 2026 · 142 MW · 11 23 Sept 2026 · 162 MW · 12 24 Sept 2026 · 50 MW · 7 25 Sept 2026 · 12 MW · 1
5 Aug 17 Aug 27 Aug 7 Sept 18 Sept

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

Fire front film How it spread from one satellite pass to the next (79 passes) and with what wind. Watch the film

The weather it burned in

32°high
47km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.7 mm on 2 Oct.

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 29,621 ha in 2016, 25,742 ha in 2017, 15,151 ha in 2018, 32,085 ha in 2019, 25,976 ha in 2020, 29,126 ha in 2021, 30,392 ha in 2022, 20,102 ha in 2023, 21,702 ha in 2024, 26,332 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 66,520 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 43% of the area of London (685 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Luwingu
    55,147 ha
    11 %
  2. Kasama
    14,537 ha
    1.4 %
  3. Chilubi where it started
    1 ha
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 91 % of the area in Zambia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
5 Aug 25.9 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Aug 26.6 °C 41 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Aug 27.2 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Aug 27.6 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Aug 27.8 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Aug 29.8 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Aug 30.1 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Aug 29.6 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
13 Aug 26.8 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Aug 25.1 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Aug 25.2 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Aug 25.5 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Aug 26.4 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Aug 27.0 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Aug 26.9 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Aug 26.9 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Aug 27.3 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Aug 28.7 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Aug 27.9 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Aug 29.2 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Aug 28.3 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Aug 29.4 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Aug 29.3 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Aug 28.3 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Aug 28.9 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Aug 29.6 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Aug 29.9 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Sept 29.7 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Sept 29.8 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept 30.4 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Sept 32.3 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Sept 30.3 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Sept 30.3 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Sept 30.4 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Sept 28.0 °C 36 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Sept 27.7 °C 37 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Sept 28.3 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Sept 29.7 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Sept 30.8 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Sept 30.9 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Sept 30.8 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Sept 30.9 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Sept 31.2 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Sept 29.9 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept 30.6 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Sept 30.7 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Sept 31.3 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Sept 30.9 °C 36 % 35 km/h 1.0 mm Very high 44
22 Sept 30.0 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Sept 30.9 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Sept 31.5 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Sept 31.1 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Sept after 32.0 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Sept after 33.2 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 40
28 Sept after 33.6 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Sept after 31.9 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Sept after 31.0 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Oct after 29.6 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.7 mm High 38
2 Oct after 28.2 °C 48 % 29 km/h 1.7 mm Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 29 Jul 2026
After · 2 Oct 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 5 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 148 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 82: 5.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak148 µg/m³
Days over the guideline52 days
PM10151 µg/m³
Optical depth1.32
3 Aug15 Aug27 Aug8 Sept20 Sept
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 1,973Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Zambia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chilubi fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 August 2026 to 25 September 2026 (52 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 August 2026 to 18 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 68,523 hectares (685.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Luwingu (55,147 ha, 11 %); Kasama (14,537 ha, 1.4 %); Chilubi (1 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Name: Luwingu → Chilubi.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 9 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 11 August 2026 to 18 September 2026. 1,973 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.