Kitwe fire, July 2026 Kitwe, Ndola
The fire started on 18 July 2026 in Kitwe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,855 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 41th largest in Copperbelt since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 365 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.
- Burnt area
- 3,855ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 18 Jul 2026 – 30 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 130
- in a single hotspot: 39 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 909MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,068 ha in 2016, 833 ha in 2018, 948 ha in 2019, 1,282 ha in 2022, 300 ha in 2023, 5 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,340 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Kitwe where it started3,505 ha reached on 17 Jul4.3 %
-
373 ha reached on 18 Jul0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jul | 25.1 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 19 Jul | 25.8 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Jul | 26.8 °C | 25 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 21 Jul | 27.6 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Jul | 27.5 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Jul | 27.2 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Jul | 26.7 °C | 36 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 25 Jul | 25.5 °C | 35 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Jul | 24.5 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 27 Jul | 24.9 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 28 Jul | 26.2 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 29 Jul | 27.2 °C | 24 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 30 Jul | 26.8 °C | 27 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 31 Jul after | 26.2 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 1 Aug after | 24.6 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 2 Aug after | 23.7 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 3 Aug after | 24.8 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 Aug after | 25.9 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Aug after | 25.8 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 30 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Aug after | 26.6 °C | 36 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 9 Aug after | 27.5 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
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 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 118 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 58: 3.9 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 · 130Every 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 Kitwe fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2026 and 30 July 2026: 13 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 3,855 hectares (38.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kitwe (3,505 ha, 4.3 %); Ndola (373 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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
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 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.