Karonga fire, 6 October 2026 Karonga, Chitipa
The fire started on 6 October 2026 in Karonga, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,187 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 313th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 418 with a page). Number 73 in Malawi in 2026, of 91.
The power measured by the satellite is low (13.1 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
- 1,187ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 6 Oct 2026 – 9 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 26
- in a single hotspot: 13 MW
- Danger at start
- 6
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 147MW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.5 mm on 14 Oct.
This area had burned before
65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 462 ha in 2020, 498 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 767 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Karonga where it started1,086 ha reached on 6 Oct0.3 %
-
109 ha reached on 6 Oct0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Oct | 23.3 °C | 46 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 7 Oct | 23.4 °C | 52 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 8 |
| 8 Oct | 23.9 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 11 |
| 9 Oct | 23.1 °C | 46 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 10 Oct after | 23.5 °C | 46 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 11 Oct after | 23.1 °C | 50 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 12 Oct after | 22.9 °C | 49 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 13 Oct after | 22.9 °C | 49 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 14 Oct after | 22.8 °C | 49 % | 36 km/h | 1.5 mm | Low 5 |
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 11 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 31 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 · 26Every 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 Karonga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 October 2026 and 9 October 2026: 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 1,187 hectares (11.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Karonga (1,086 ha, 0.3 %); Chitipa (109 ha, 0.0 %).
- Is the Karonga fire still active?
- No fire detections since 9 Oct 2026, 10:53 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 23.9 °C, humidity dropped to 39 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 12, class Moderate.
- 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.