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Chitambo fire, 11 August 2026 Chitambo, Serenje

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2026, 11:45 UTC

The fire started on 11 August 2026 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 27,699 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Central since 2016 (of 400 with a page). Number 26 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.

Burnt area
27,699ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
36days
11 Aug 2026 – 15 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
11 Aug
2026
Heat detections
779
in a single hotspot: 76 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Aug15 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1112131415161719202122232425262728293031123467101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
51km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 5.1 mm on 21 Sept.

This area had burned before

72% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 957 ha in 2016, 7,818 ha in 2017, 7,316 ha in 2018, 5,445 ha in 2019, 3,648 ha in 2020, 2,692 ha in 2021, 1,072 ha in 2022, 4,060 ha in 2023, 7,283 ha in 2024, 2,880 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 19,880 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitambo where it started
    23,583 ha reached on 11 Aug
    2.0 %
  2. Serenje
    4,272 ha reached on 11 Aug
    0.4 %

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)
11 Aug 29.2 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Aug 27.2 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Aug 23.0 °C 47 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Aug 21.4 °C 51 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Aug 23.4 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Aug 24.2 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Aug 25.4 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Aug 26.5 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Aug 25.9 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Aug 25.8 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug 26.3 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Aug 27.3 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Aug 27.0 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Aug 27.7 °C 34 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Aug 28.7 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Aug 28.6 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Aug 26.9 °C 39 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Aug 25.3 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Aug 27.7 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Aug 29.1 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
31 Aug 29.3 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept 29.2 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Sept 28.7 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Sept 29.4 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Sept 29.8 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Sept 28.4 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Sept 28.8 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Sept 28.4 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Sept 26.3 °C 36 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Sept 24.3 °C 43 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Sept 27.3 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Sept 28.8 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Sept 30.1 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Sept 29.5 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept 30.3 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept 30.3 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Sept after 30.2 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Sept after 29.3 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Sept after 29.5 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Sept after 29.6 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept after 29.3 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Sept after 26.5 °C 44 % 32 km/h 5.1 mm Low 7

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Aug 2026
After · 22 Sept 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 65 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak65 µg/m³
Days over the guideline30 days
PM1070 µg/m³
Optical depth1.34
910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718
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 · 779Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 August 2026 to 15 September 2026 (36 days). The perimeter dates it from 16 August 2026 to 8 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 27,699 hectares (277.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitambo (23,583 ha, 2.0 %); Serenje (4,272 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 51 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.

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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.