Chitipa fire, 1 August 2026 Chitipa
The fire started on 1 August 2026 in Chitipa, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,417 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 95th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 418 with a page). Number 19 in Malawi in 2026, of 91.
The power measured by the satellite is low (16.1 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
- 2,417ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 1 Aug 2026 – 3 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 1 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 50
- in a single hotspot: 16 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 312MW
- 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 54 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,175 ha in 2016, 758 ha in 2017, 535 ha in 2018, 7 ha in 2019, 1 ha in 2023, 1,297 ha in 2024, 958 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,428 ha that had burned before.
- 1,949 ha Chitipa fire, July 2016 7,693 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,297 ha Chitipa fire, July 2024 2,977 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 958 ha Chitipa fire, August 2025 2,515 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 758 ha Chitipa fire, August 2017 2,199 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 352 ha Chitipa fire, August 2018 1,823 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 225 ha Chitipa fire, July 2016 1,594 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 184 ha Chitipa fire, August 2018 3,635 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7 ha Rumphi fire, August 2019 3,093 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chitipa where it started2,437 ha reached on 1 Aug0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Aug | 19.1 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Aug | 20.1 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 3 Aug | 20.6 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 4 Aug after | 20.6 °C | 36 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 5 Aug after | 21.2 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Aug after | 21.2 °C | 38 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Aug after | 22.2 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 8 Aug after | 21.3 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 9 Aug after | 20.8 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 10 Aug after | 22.9 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 11 Aug after | 23.5 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Aug after | 22.2 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Aug after | 20.0 °C | 45 % | 40 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 26 |
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 6 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 33 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 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 · 50Every 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 Chitipa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 1 August 2026 and 3 August 2026: 3 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 2,417 hectares (24.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chitipa (2,437 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 20.6 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 25, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Malawi (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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.