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Chitambo fire, 22 July 2026 Lavushimanda, Chitambo

Out · last detection 7 Aug 2026, 23:22 UTC

The fire started on 22 July 2026 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,779 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 164th largest in Central since 2016 (of 400 with a page). Number 245 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.1 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
4,779ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
22 Jul 2026 – 6 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
22 Jul
2026
Heat detections
63
in a single hotspot: 15 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
189MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jul6 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2225262729303117

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
45km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 133 ha in 2018, 31 ha in 2019, 52 ha in 2021, 138 ha in 2025.

What happened to each town

  1. Lavushimanda
    4,641 ha reached on 22 Jul
    0.3 %
  2. Chitambo where it started
    164 ha reached on 17 Jul
    0.0 %

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)
22 Jul 27.4 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Jul 26.9 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Jul 26.4 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jul 24.3 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Jul 23.6 °C 41 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Jul 24.8 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jul 26.4 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jul 26.9 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Jul 26.9 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Jul 25.6 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Aug 23.7 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Aug 23.8 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Aug 24.7 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Aug 25.1 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Aug 25.9 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Aug 26.9 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Aug after 27.1 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Aug after 26.2 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Aug after 27.7 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Aug after 29.2 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Aug after 29.5 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug after 27.2 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Aug after 23.1 °C 48 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Aug after 21.9 °C 49 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Aug after 23.9 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Aug after 24.6 °C 31 % 32 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.

Before · 15 Jul 2026
After · 13 Aug 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 22 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 43 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 2.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak43 µg/m³
Days over the guideline12 days
PM1046 µg/m³
Optical depth0.82
202122232425262728293031123456789
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 · 63Every 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 Chitambo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 July 2026 and 6 August 2026: 16 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 4,779 hectares (47.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lavushimanda (4,641 ha, 0.3 %); Chitambo (164 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.4 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.

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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.