Karonga fire, 13 October 2023 Karonga
The fire started on 13 October 2023 in Karonga, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,727 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 83th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 418 with a page). Number 5 in Malawi in 2023, of 35.
- Burnt area
- 2,727ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 13 Oct 2023 – 16 Oct 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Oct
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 83
- in a single hotspot: 44 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 610MW
- 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 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.4 mm on 17 Oct.
This area had burned before
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 113 ha in 2016, 102 ha in 2017, 1,521 ha in 2018, 1,028 ha in 2020, 1,303 ha in 2021, 1,852 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,679 ha that had burned before.
- 1,852 ha Karonga fire, October 2022 3,387 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,521 ha Karonga fire, October 2018 1,948 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,303 ha Karonga fire, October 2021 1,686 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,028 ha Karonga fire, October 2020 1,606 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 113 ha Karonga fire, October 2016 1,373 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 66 ha Karonga fire, October 2017 3,935 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 35 ha Karonga fire, October 2017 2,050 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Karonga where it started2,742 ha reached on 13 Oct0.8 %
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 | 32.6 °C | 29 % | 39 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Oct | 33.8 °C | 24 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Oct | 32.8 °C | 20 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 16 Oct | 31.4 °C | 41 % | 43 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Oct after | 31.8 °C | 39 % | 31 km/h | 3.4 mm | Low 8 |
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.
Detections table · 83Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,676 haKaronga14 October 2025 · 21 days · 2 km away
- 10,386 haChitipa25 October 2025 · 18 days · 7 km away
- 8,073 haKaronga23 October 2025 · 19 days · 29 km away
- 5,640 haChitipa1 November 2025 · 12 days · 29 km away
- 10,369 haChitipa 13 October 2026 · 11 days · 36 km away
- 22,043 haChitipa26 October 2025 · 14 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Karonga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 October 2023 and 16 October 2023: 4 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 2,727 hectares (27.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Karonga (2,742 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 49 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 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.