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ZM · Zambia · →

Ikelenge fire, June 2026 Ikelenge

Out · last detection 5 Jul 2026, 12:34 UTC

The fire started on 22 June 2026 in Ikelenge, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,510 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 200th largest in North-Western since 2016 (of 286 with a page). Number 440 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.4 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
3,510ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
22 Jun 2026 – 4 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Jun
2026
Heat detections
82
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
422MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Jul 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jun4 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

23242628293012345

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
38km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 41 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

67% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 25 ha in 2016, 972 ha in 2017, 1,123 ha in 2019, 562 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,345 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ikelenge where it started
    3,531 ha reached on 20 Jun
    1.6 %

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)
22 Jun 27.2 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Jun 26.5 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Jun 26.0 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Jun 26.8 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jun 27.2 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Jun 27.0 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Jun 27.3 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Jun 27.6 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Jun 28.1 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Jul 28.8 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Jul 29.3 °C 24 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Jul 28.7 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Jul 27.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Jul after 27.3 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Jul after 26.6 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Jul after 26.4 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Jul after 27.1 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Jul after 27.5 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Jul after 28.2 °C 23 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
11 Jul after 28.1 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Jul after 28.7 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Jul after 28.6 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Jul after 28.0 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jun 2026
After · 11 Jul 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 2 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 67 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak67 µg/m³
Days over the guideline13 days
PM1069 µg/m³
Optical depth0.55
20212223242526272829301234567
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 · 82Every 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 Ikelenge fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 June 2026 and 4 July 2026: 13 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 3,510 hectares (35.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ikelenge (3,531 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.

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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.