Chitambo fire, 29 August 2026 Chitambo, Lavushimanda
The fire started on 29 August 2026 in Chitambo, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 31 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 46,195 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 2th largest in Central since 2016 (of 400 with a page). Number 14 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.
- Burnt area
- 46,195ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 31days
- 29 Aug 2026 – 28 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 29 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 1,092
- in a single hotspot: 205 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 9.9GW
- 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 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 30 Sept.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 21,512 ha in 2016, 16,938 ha in 2017, 26,605 ha in 2018, 21,389 ha in 2019, 26,928 ha in 2020, 25,137 ha in 2021, 18,529 ha in 2022, 22,160 ha in 2023, 20,716 ha in 2024, 32,970 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 45,203 ha that had burned before.
- 30,652 ha Chitambo fire, September 2025 65,144 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 22,823 ha Chitambo fire, September 2021 39,948 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 21,170 ha Chitambo fire, September 2020 25,336 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 20,226 ha Chitambo fire, September 2018 25,250 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 17,127 ha Chitambo fire, September 2016 18,853 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 16,075 ha Chitambo fire, September 2023 21,401 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 12,043 ha Chitambo fire, September 2024 14,404 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 10,576 ha Chitambo fire, September 2019 12,241 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chitambo where it started41,079 ha reached on 1 Sept3.4 %
-
5,447 ha reached on 29 Aug0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Aug | 23.0 °C | 43 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 30 Aug | 25.0 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Aug | 25.2 °C | 35 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Sept | 25.1 °C | 35 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Sept | 24.4 °C | 38 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Sept | 26.3 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 4 Sept | 26.7 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Sept | 25.5 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Sept | 24.7 °C | 43 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Sept | 24.4 °C | 44 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Sept | 22.9 °C | 40 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Sept | 19.8 °C | 53 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 10 Sept | 23.0 °C | 44 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 11 Sept | 25.1 °C | 37 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 12 Sept | 25.8 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 13 Sept | 26.0 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Sept | 26.2 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Sept | 26.1 °C | 31 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Sept | 26.1 °C | 30 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 17 Sept | 25.5 °C | 35 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Sept | 25.5 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Sept | 25.5 °C | 40 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Sept | 25.6 °C | 40 % | 44 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 33 |
| 21 Sept | 24.6 °C | 46 % | 35 km/h | 1.4 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 22 Sept | 23.7 °C | 53 % | 39 km/h | 3.0 mm | Low 7 |
| 23 Sept | 25.2 °C | 49 % | 46 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 24 Sept | 26.8 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 24 |
| 25 Sept | 27.4 °C | 31 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Sept | 27.8 °C | 34 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 27 Sept | 29.3 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Sept | 30.1 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 29 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 30 Sept after | 24.7 °C | 50 % | 45 km/h | 1.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
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 13 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 59 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 39: 2.6 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 · 1,092Every 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 Chitambo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 August 2026 to 28 September 2026 (31 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 September 2026 to 21 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 46,195 hectares (462.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitambo (41,079 ha, 3.4 %); Lavushimanda (5,447 ha, 0.4 %).
- Is the Chitambo fire still active?
- No fire detections since 28 Sept 2026, 11:00 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.
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.