Karonga fire, 13 October 2026 Karonga
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 2,072 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 117th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 420 with a page). Number 24 in Malawi in 2026, of 99.
The power measured by the satellite is low (12.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
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
- 2,072ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 13 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 21
- in a single hotspot: 12 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 142MW
- 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 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 293 ha in 2019, 991 ha in 2020, 392 ha in 2023, 1,150 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,730 ha that had burned before.
- 1,150 ha Karonga fire, October 2025 8,073 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 848 ha Karonga fire, October 2020 1,423 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 392 ha Karonga fire, October 2023 1,477 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 293 ha Karonga fire, October 2019 2,006 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 142 ha Karonga fire, October 2020 1,050 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1 ha Karonga fire, October 2020 1,429 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Karonga where it started2,083 ha reached on 13 Oct0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct | 31.9 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 27 |
| 14 Oct | 31.8 °C | 38 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 15 Oct | 31.8 °C | 33 % | 45 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Oct | 32.0 °C | 27 % | 44 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 17 Oct | 31.9 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Oct | 31.3 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 1.1 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 19 Oct | 32.3 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 25 |
| 20 Oct | 33.4 °C | 37 % | 33 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 21 Oct | 34.9 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
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 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).
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 · 21Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 8,073 haKaronga23 October 2025 · 19 days · 2 km away
- 15,432 haChitipa 13 October 2026 · 11 days · 20 km away
- 22,043 haChitipa26 October 2025 · 14 days · 21 km away
- 6,676 haKaronga14 October 2025 · 21 days · 27 km away
- 10,386 haChitipa25 October 2025 · 18 days · 29 km away
- 5,627 haChitipa18 October 2025 · 18 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Karonga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 October 2026 and 23 October 2026: 11 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 2,072 hectares (20.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Karonga (2,083 ha, 0.6 %).
- 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 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, class 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.