Burned area
satellite only28,253ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 29 Aug 2022 – 17 Sept 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
ZM · Zambia · –
Luampa fire, August 2022 Itezhi-Tezhi, Luampa
Out · last detection 16 Sept 2022, 23:56 UTC
The fire started on 29 August 2022 in Luampa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 28,253 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the largest fire in Western since 2016 (of 98 with a page). Number 4 in Zambia in 2022, of 235.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-11-15matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only20days
29 Aug 2022 to 17 Sept 2022: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 16 Sept 2022, 23:56 UTC
+− cross-check
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.
Start
satellite only29 Aug 2022
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 29 Aug 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only992
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 154 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 29 Aug 2022 – 17 Sept 2022
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only2,384MW
Total radiative power on 13 September 2022; hotspots that day: 164.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 13 Sept 2022
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model52.7FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 29 Aug 2022, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model31.4°C · 16% RH
High of 31.4 °C and minimum humidity of 16% on 6 September 2022; gusts of 57 km/h on 31 August 2022.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 29 Aug 2022 – 17 Sept 2022
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
logName: Itezhi-Tezhi → Luampa.
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logStart date: 31 August 2022 → 29 August 2022.
Area logged each night
Move the slider to see which area the page published each day.
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/luampa-2022-08?v=2026-11-15A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire luampa-2022-08.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-08-29 | 26 | 224 | 28.4 | 13.2 | 22 | 15.3 | 34.2 | 0 | 52.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-08-30 | 13 | 68 | 29.4 | 12.5 | 22 | 18.6 | 36.4 | 0 | 53.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-08-31 | 33 | 220 | 25.9 | 16.6 | 29 | 29 | 56.9 | 0 | 61.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-01 | 8 | 39 | 21.1 | 13.8 | 43 | 27.2 | 52.6 | 0 | 49.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2022-09-02 | 24 | 128 | 22.8 | 9.4 | 34 | 21.2 | 44.6 | 0 | 42.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2022-09-03 | 35 | 128 | 25.7 | 10 | 30 | 13.6 | 32 | 0 | 34.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-09-04 | 21 | 180 | 29.3 | 11.9 | 27 | 11.7 | 24.5 | 0 | 33.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-09-05 | 67 | 826 | 30.8 | 14 | 19 | 13.2 | 31.7 | 0 | 50.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-06 | 42 | 186 | 31.4 | 12.6 | 16 | 15.2 | 33.5 | 0 | 58.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-07 | 40 | 204 | 28.7 | 16.4 | 27 | 25.9 | 52.2 | 0 | 70.6 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-08 | 30 | 143 | 26.9 | 15.2 | 28 | 18.9 | 40.3 | 0 | 56.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-09 | 34 | 172 | 28.2 | 13.2 | 25 | 19.8 | 41.8 | 0 | 59.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-10 | 38 | 264 | 29.1 | 12.2 | 19 | 16.8 | 36.7 | 0 | 54.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-11 | 124 | 1,355 | 30.2 | 10.8 | 15 | 19.2 | 41 | 0 | 68.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-12 | 96 | 604 | 30.3 | 12.7 | 14 | 13.3 | 31.7 | 0 | 57.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-13 | 164 | 2,384 | 30.6 | 14.8 | 22 | 25.5 | 52.2 | 0 | 79.1 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-14 | 121 | 704 | 27.7 | 17.1 | 28 | 26.9 | 53.6 | 0 | 70.9 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-15 | 43 | 1,076 | 26.2 | 15.8 | 29 | 19.9 | 42.8 | 0 | 52.7 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-16 | 33 | 229 | 27.8 | 15 | 21 | 21.4 | 45.7 | 0 | 59.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2022-09-17 | 0 | 0 | 29.2 | 14.2 | 24 | 17.4 | 38.2 | 0 | 46.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2022-09-18 | 0 | 0 | 31.3 | 17.4 | 24 | 16.6 | 37.4 | 0 | 51.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2022-09-19 | 0 | 0 | 32.7 | 21.6 | 23 | 13.9 | 32.8 | 0 | 52.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2022-09-20 | 0 | 0 | 30.6 | 19.6 | 32 | 10.3 | 26.6 | 0.1 | 38.6 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2022-09-21 | 0 | 0 | 31.2 | 20.4 | 22 | 16.9 | 37.1 | 0 | 51.6 | extremo | 0 |
| 2022-09-22 | 0 | 0 | 32.3 | 17.9 | 25 | 15.2 | 34.2 | 0 | 47.2 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2022-09-23 | 0 | 0 | 33.1 | 18.5 | 23 | 20.4 | 42.5 | 0 | 57.8 | extremo | 0 |
| 2022-09-24 | 0 | 0 | 31.3 | 19.1 | 21 | 25.2 | 51.5 | 0 | 73.4 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2022-09-25 | 0 | 0 | 31.2 | 19.1 | 24 | 21.4 | 45.4 | 0 | 68.3 | extremo | 0 |
| 2022-09-26 | 0 | 0 | 31.3 | 19.4 | 22 | 18.1 | 40 | 0 | 57.4 | extremo | 0 |
| 2022-09-27 | 0 | 0 | 33.4 | 19.7 | 16 | 19.5 | 39.6 | 0 | 63.6 | extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 28,253ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 29 Aug 2022 – 17 Sept 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 29 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 992
- in a single hotspot: 154 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 481MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
29 Aug17 Sept
16 Sept 2022
How it evolved, day by day
29 Aug
2 Sept
6 Sept
10 Sept
13 Sept
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
31°high
57km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
66% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,403 ha in 2016, 4,677 ha in 2017, 5,842 ha in 2018, 5,705 ha in 2019, 4,791 ha in 2020, 6,280 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 18,724 ha that had burned before.
- 2,969 ha Itezhi-Tezhi fire, September 2018 3,354 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,282 ha Itezhi-Tezhi fire, July 2019 4,151 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,225 ha Itezhi-Tezhi fire, September 2017 5,545 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,317 ha Itezhi-Tezhi fire, August 2021 3,088 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
27,890 ha1.8 %
-
Luampa where it started493 ha0.0 %
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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Aug | 28.4 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 30 Aug | 29.4 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 31 Aug | 25.9 °C | 29 % | 57 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 1 Sept | 21.1 °C | 43 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 2 Sept | 22.8 °C | 34 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Sept | 25.7 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 4 Sept | 29.3 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Sept | 30.8 °C | 19 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 6 Sept | 31.4 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 7 Sept | 28.7 °C | 27 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 8 Sept | 26.9 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 9 Sept | 28.2 °C | 25 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 10 Sept | 29.1 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 11 Sept | 30.2 °C | 15 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 12 Sept | 30.3 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 13 Sept | 30.6 °C | 22 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 14 Sept | 27.7 °C | 28 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 15 Sept | 26.2 °C | 29 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 16 Sept | 27.8 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 17 Sept | 29.2 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 18 Sept after | 31.3 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 19 Sept after | 32.7 °C | 23 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 20 Sept after | 30.6 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 Sept after | 31.2 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 22 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 23 Sept after | 33.1 °C | 23 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 24 Sept after | 31.3 °C | 21 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 25 Sept after | 31.2 °C | 24 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 26 Sept after | 31.3 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 27 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 16 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 52.7, a minimum humidity of 22% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 27.
FWI at the start
52.7
Minimum humidity
22 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Luampa fire, August 2022
28,253 ha
20 days
FWI 52.7
Min. humidity 22 %
Itezhi-Tezhi fire, September 2016
11,113 ha
15 days
FWI 53.8
Min. humidity 23 %
50 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Itezhi-Tezhi fire, September 2020
6,227 ha
7 days
FWI 53.4
Min. humidity 20 %
27 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Itezhi-Tezhi fire, August 2021
4,771 ha
6 days
FWI 51.0
Min. humidity 21 %
55 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Itezhi-Tezhi fire, September 2020
3,035 ha
7 days
FWI 48.2
Min. humidity 22 %
37 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mumbwa fire, October 2022
5,788 ha
10 days
FWI 52.1
Min. humidity 20 %
115 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 9 days
- median duration
- 4,290 ha
- median area
- 11 %
- went past 10,000 ha
- 13.0 mm
- rain at the end (median; 3 of 27 had it)
It was 6.6 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 20 days, against 9 days.
Only 1 of its 27 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 24 of 27, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 13.0 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
57km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 17 Sept, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 3 of 27, with a median of 13.0 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 22 Aug 2022
After · 24 Sept 2022
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 12 September 2022 the air beside the fire reached 70 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 43: 2.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak70 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10100 µg/m³
Optical depth1.23
WHO 15
27 Aug1 Sept6 Sept11 Sept16 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 · 992Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 11,247 haItezhi-Tezhi23 August 2023 · 12 days · 26 km away
- 26,712 haItezhi-Tezhi22 July 2024 · 28 days · 28 km away
- 33,541 haItezhi-Tezhi16 July 2026 · 23 days · 31 km away
- 29,167 haItezhi-Tezhi11 September 2022 · 9 days · 33 km away
- 17,003 haItezhi-Tezhi4 October 2018 · 14 days · 39 km away
- 34,005 haItezhi-Tezhi27 September 2022 · 19 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Luampa fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 29 August 2022 to 17 September 2022 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 August 2022 to 17 September 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 28,253 hectares (282.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Itezhi-Tezhi (27,890 ha, 1.8 %); Luampa (493 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 79, class Very extreme.
- 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.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 27. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 4,290 ha; 11 % went past 10,000 ha. Only 1 of its 27 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 24 of 27, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 13.0 mm.
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 · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Name: Itezhi-Tezhi → Luampa.
- Start date: 31 August 2022 → 29 August 2022.
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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 31 August 2022 to 17 September 2022. 992 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.
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.