How long did the Chitipa fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 October 2026 to 22 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,369 hectares (103.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitipa (5,509 ha, 1.3 %); Karonga (1,323 ha, 0.4 %).

Is the Chitipa fire still active?

No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:51 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 27.1 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 11, class Low.

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.

MW · Malawi · 2026-10-13 → 2026-10-23

Chitipa fire, 13 October 2026 Chitipa, Karonga

Dying down · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 11:51 UTC

The fire started on 13 October 2026 in Chitipa, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,369 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 16th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 418 with a page). Number 3 in Malawi in 2026, of 91.

Is it still active?

No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:51 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

Burnt area: 10,369ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 11days; 13 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 13 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 162; in a single hotspot: 100 MW
Danger at start: 7; Low · FWI index
Energy released: 1.6GW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1314151617181920212223

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

42%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

37% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,387 ha in 2016, 59 ha in 2019, 268 ha in 2022, 3,581 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,885 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Chitipa where it started

5,509 ha reached on 14 Oct

1.3 %
Karonga

1,323 ha reached on 15 Oct

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)
13 Oct	25.1 °C	58 %	39 km/h	0.5 mm	Low 7
14 Oct	23.3 °C	63 %	37 km/h	1.2 mm	Very low 3
15 Oct	24.3 °C	54 %	45 km/h	0.5 mm	Low 7
16 Oct	24.8 °C	42 %	44 km/h	0.4 mm	Low 11
17 Oct	25.1 °C	46 %	39 km/h	0.1 mm	Low 10
18 Oct	24.8 °C	50 %	32 km/h	0.7 mm	Low 8
19 Oct	26.4 °C	50 %	34 km/h	0.5 mm	Low 9
20 Oct	27.1 °C	51 %	34 km/h	0.4 mm	Low 8
21 Oct	28.7 °C	37 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 6 Oct 2026

After · 23 Oct 2026

Before After

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 20 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 42 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak42 µg/m³

Days over the guideline8 days

PM1044 µg/m³

Optical depth0.79

WHO 15

11121314151617181920

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 · 162Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Malawi ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chitipa fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 October 2026 to 22 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 10,369 hectares (103.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chitipa (5,509 ha, 1.3 %); Karonga (1,323 ha, 0.4 %).
Is the Chitipa fire still active?: No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:51 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 27.1 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 11, class Low.
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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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 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.