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ZM · Zambia · –

Kawambwa fire, 21 July 2026 Mporokoso, Kawambwa

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2026, 10:56 UTC

The fire started on 21 July 2026 in Kawambwa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 66 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 103,032 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

Number 9 in Zambia in 2026, of 621.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in August 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kawambwa · 2025Mporokoso · 2021Mporokoso · 2019Mporokoso · 2022

Burnt area
103,032ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
66days
21 Jul 2026 – 24 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
21 Jul
2026
Heat detections
4,640
in a single hotspot: 117 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
854MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jul24 Sept
23 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

21 Jul 2026 · 29 MW · 5 22 Jul 2026 · 23 MW · 2 23 Jul 2026 · 26 MW · 5 24 Jul 2026 · 45 MW · 2 25 Jul 2026 · 236 MW · 8 27 Jul 2026 · 6 MW · 2 28 Jul 2026 · 4 MW · 1 29 Jul 2026 · 170 MW · 20 30 Jul 2026 · 228 MW · 31 31 Jul 2026 · 286 MW · 47 1 Aug 2026 · 1,393 MW · 159 2 Aug 2026 · 441 MW · 31 3 Aug 2026 · 105 MW · 14 4 Aug 2026 · 168 MW · 23 5 Aug 2026 · 86 MW · 10 6 Aug 2026 · 88 MW · 8 7 Aug 2026 · 148 MW · 16 8 Aug 2026 · 225 MW · 30 9 Aug 2026 · 840 MW · 76 10 Aug 2026 · 1,404 MW · 109 11 Aug 2026 · 3,625 MW · 210 12 Aug 2026 · 1,545 MW · 179 13 Aug 2026 · 188 MW · 19 14 Aug 2026 · 315 MW · 34 15 Aug 2026 · 407 MW · 41 16 Aug 2026 · 576 MW · 51 17 Aug 2026 · 1,983 MW · 150 18 Aug 2026 · 51 MW · 30 19 Aug 2026 · 1,241 MW · 152 20 Aug 2026 · 1,020 MW · 90 21 Aug 2026 · 462 MW · 39 22 Aug 2026 · 365 MW · 55 23 Aug 2026 · 442 MW · 34 24 Aug 2026 · 809 MW · 69 25 Aug 2026 · 307 MW · 34 26 Aug 2026 · 1,008 MW · 73 27 Aug 2026 · 807 MW · 101 28 Aug 2026 · 591 MW · 110 29 Aug 2026 · 1,294 MW · 143 30 Aug 2026 · 1,463 MW · 125 31 Aug 2026 · 2,940 MW · 202 1 Sept 2026 · 1,979 MW · 170 2 Sept 2026 · 1,082 MW · 98 3 Sept 2026 · 4,572 MW · 351 4 Sept 2026 · 2,486 MW · 194 5 Sept 2026 · 1,206 MW · 127 6 Sept 2026 · 2,977 MW · 124 7 Sept 2026 · 3,131 MW · 255 8 Sept 2026 · 3,036 MW · 225 9 Sept 2026 · 1,524 MW · 176 10 Sept 2026 · 1,388 MW · 132 11 Sept 2026 · 368 MW · 25 12 Sept 2026 · 335 MW · 34 13 Sept 2026 · 62 MW · 10 14 Sept 2026 · 465 MW · 39 15 Sept 2026 · 471 MW · 38 16 Sept 2026 · 360 MW · 31 17 Sept 2026 · 121 MW · 22 18 Sept 2026 · 572 MW · 24 19 Sept 2026 · 45 MW · 5 20 Sept 2026 · 48 MW · 4 21 Sept 2026 · 187 MW · 14 23 Sept 2026 · 11 MW · 2
21 Jul 4 Aug 17 Aug 3 Sept

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

Fire front film How it spread from one satellite pass to the next (103 passes) and with what wind. Watch the film

The weather it burned in

33°high
44km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 27 Sept.

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 39,452 ha in 2016, 42,782 ha in 2017, 28,198 ha in 2018, 42,410 ha in 2019, 32,662 ha in 2020, 42,610 ha in 2021, 41,421 ha in 2022, 37,452 ha in 2023, 40,323 ha in 2024, 65,244 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 99,738 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 65% of the area of London (1,030 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Mporokoso
    55,165 ha reached on 8 Aug
    13 %
  2. Kawambwa where it started
    50,596 ha reached on 21 Jul
    6.3 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area127 ha
Residents≈ 13,000

Inside the perimeter there were about 127 hectares of built-up land and about 13,000 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 91 % of the area in Zambia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
21 Jul 27.6 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Jul 27.4 °C 36 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Jul 27.8 °C 40 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
24 Jul 27.2 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Jul 27.0 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jul 26.5 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Jul 25.6 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Jul 26.6 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Jul 27.6 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Jul 26.7 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Jul 26.5 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Aug 24.8 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Aug 25.3 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Aug 25.1 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Aug 25.7 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Aug 26.6 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Aug 27.3 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Aug 27.7 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Aug 28.3 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Aug 27.9 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Aug 30.0 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Aug 30.1 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Aug 29.8 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Aug 27.4 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Aug 24.5 °C 43 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Aug 25.5 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Aug 25.8 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Aug 26.7 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Aug 27.2 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Aug 27.0 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Aug 27.0 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Aug 27.4 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Aug 28.5 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Aug 28.2 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
24 Aug 28.9 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Aug 28.2 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Aug 29.0 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Aug 29.7 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Aug 28.0 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Aug 28.5 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Aug 29.2 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Aug 30.0 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Sept 29.1 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Sept 30.0 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Sept 30.5 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Sept 30.5 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept 29.0 °C 37 % 22 km/h 1.2 mm Moderate 21
6 Sept 30.0 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
7 Sept 31.1 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Sept 29.0 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Sept 28.1 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Sept 28.6 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Sept 29.9 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Sept 29.5 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept 30.7 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Sept 31.0 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Sept 30.9 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Sept 30.3 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Sept 30.2 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Sept 31.1 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Sept 30.8 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Sept 32.6 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Sept 30.5 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Sept 31.1 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 40
23 Sept 30.7 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.3 mm High 37
24 Sept 30.5 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
25 Sept after 30.8 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Sept after 31.3 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
27 Sept after 31.0 °C 32 % 30 km/h 3.2 mm Moderate 12

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jul 2026
After · 1 Oct 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 5 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 244 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 114: 7.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak244 µg/m³
Days over the guideline65 days
PM10249 µg/m³
Optical depth2.28
19 Jul2 Aug16 Aug30 Aug13 Sept
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 · 4,640Every 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 Kawambwa fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 July 2026 to 24 September 2026 (66 days). The perimeter dates it from 27 July 2026 to 17 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 103,032 hectares (1,030.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mporokoso (55,165 ha, 13 %); Kawambwa (50,596 ha, 6.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 44 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 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

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 23 September 2026 → 24 September 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 9 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 27 July 2026 to 17 September 2026. 4,640 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.