Karonga fire, 13 October 2026 Karonga, Chitipa
The fire started on 13 October 2026 in Karonga, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,331 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 38th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 418 with a page). Number 7 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
- 4,331ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 13 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 79
- in a single hotspot: 88 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 741MW
- 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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 862 ha in 2016, 523 ha in 2017, 707 ha in 2019, 210 ha in 2022, 622 ha in 2023, 403 ha in 2024, 781 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,015 ha that had burned before.
- 862 ha Karonga fire, October 2016 1,517 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 781 ha Karonga fire, October 2025 6,676 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 707 ha Karonga fire, October 2019 2,176 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 622 ha Karonga fire, October 2023 1,756 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 523 ha Karonga fire, October 2017 2,050 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 403 ha Karonga fire, October 2024 1,107 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 210 ha Karonga fire, October 2022 1,140 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Karonga where it started4,356 ha reached on 13 Oct1.3 %
-
2 ha reached on 23 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Oct | 31.4 °C | 28 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Oct | 31.3 °C | 24 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Oct | 31.6 °C | 28 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Oct | 31.4 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 30 |
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 16 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 22 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 18: 1.2 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 · 79Every 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?
- 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 4,331 hectares (43.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Karonga (4,356 ha, 1.3 %); Chitipa (2 ha, 0.0 %).
- Is the Karonga 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 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.