How long did the Luano fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 September 2026 and 25 September 2026: 16 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 8,023 hectares (80.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Luano (8,079 ha, 0.9 %).

Is the Luano fire still active?

No fire detections since 26 Sept 2026, 11:38 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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.

ZM · Zambia · 2026-09-10 → 2026-09-25

Luano fire, 10 September 2026 Luano

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2026, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 10 September 2026 in Luano, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,023 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 76th largest in Central since 2016 (of 401 with a page). Number 117 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.

Burnt area: 8,023ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 16days; 10 Sept 2026 – 25 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 10 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 225; in a single hotspot: 33 MW
Danger at start: 34; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 26 Sept 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Sept25 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1012131415161718192023242526

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

49km/h · peak gust

21%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 5 Oct.

This area had burned before

33% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3 ha in 2017, 409 ha in 2018, 160 ha in 2021, 586 ha in 2022, 715 ha in 2023, 1,287 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,674 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Luano where it started

8,079 ha

0.9 %

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)
10 Sept	30.5 °C	33 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
11 Sept	32.6 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
12 Sept	35.0 °C	26 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
13 Sept	34.4 °C	27 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
14 Sept	35.7 °C	23 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
15 Sept	35.4 °C	22 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
16 Sept	35.7 °C	21 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
17 Sept	35.1 °C	21 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
18 Sept	34.3 °C	26 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
19 Sept	33.2 °C	30 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
20 Sept	34.6 °C	28 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
21 Sept	34.7 °C	24 %	40 km/h	1.6 mm	High 35
22 Sept	32.7 °C	40 %	45 km/h	1.2 mm	High 27
23 Sept	34.5 °C	27 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
24 Sept	35.1 °C	25 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
25 Sept	34.7 °C	25 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
26 Sept after	35.4 °C	24 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
27 Sept after	37.6 °C	21 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
28 Sept after	38.5 °C	22 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
29 Sept after	37.9 °C	25 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
30 Sept after	28.9 °C	49 %	51 km/h	0.8 mm	High 30
1 Oct after	25.8 °C	51 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
2 Oct after	23.3 °C	58 %	27 km/h	0.6 mm	Moderate 18
3 Oct after	28.6 °C	36 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 25
4 Oct after	33.1 °C	35 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
5 Oct after	27.1 °C	59 %	35 km/h	1.1 mm	Moderate 16

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 3 Sept 2026

After · 2 Oct 2026

Before After

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 17 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 51 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 37: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak51 µg/m³

Days over the guideline15 days

PM1053 µg/m³

Optical depth0.93

WHO 15

8910111213141516171819202122232425262728

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 · 225Every 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

All fires in Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Luano fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 September 2026 and 25 September 2026: 16 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 8,023 hectares (80.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Luano (8,079 ha, 0.9 %).
Is the Luano fire still active?: No fire detections since 26 Sept 2026, 11:38 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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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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.

Where it burned