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Chitambo fire, 17 August 2026 Chitambo, Lavushimanda

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2026, 12:10 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2026 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,451 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 305th largest in Central since 2016 (of 400 with a page). Number 452 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.

Burnt area
3,451ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
17 Aug 2026 – 3 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
17 Aug
2026
Heat detections
66
in a single hotspot: 31 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
399MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Sept 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug3 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

172021222425262728303113

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
44km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 292 ha in 2017, 212 ha in 2018, 433 ha in 2019, 22 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 851 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chitambo where it started
    3,397 ha reached on 17 Aug
    0.3 %
  2. Lavushimanda
    67 ha reached on 22 Aug
    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)
17 Aug 26.3 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Aug 27.3 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug 26.7 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Aug 26.7 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Aug 27.4 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug 27.9 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Aug 28.6 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Aug 28.3 °C 33 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Aug 29.2 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Aug 29.7 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Aug 27.8 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Aug 26.8 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Aug 28.5 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Aug 29.8 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Aug 30.0 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Sept 30.2 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Sept 29.6 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Sept 30.1 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Sept after 31.0 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Sept after 29.7 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Sept after 30.2 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Sept after 29.7 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Sept after 27.5 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Sept after 26.0 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Sept after 28.4 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Sept after 30.1 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Sept after 31.4 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Sept after 30.4 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2026
After · 10 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 71 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak71 µg/m³
Days over the guideline20 days
PM1076 µg/m³
Optical depth1.38
1516171819202122232425262728293031123456
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 · 66Every 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 17 August 2026 to 3 September 2026 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 August 2026 to 28 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,451 hectares (34.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitambo (3,397 ha, 0.3 %); Lavushimanda (67 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.