Lunte fire, August 2021 Lunte, Kasama
The fire started on 28 August 2021 in Lunte, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,885 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 79th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 27 in Zambia in 2021, of 213.
- Burnt area
- 9,885ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 28 Aug 2021 – 13 Sept 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 400
- in a single hotspot: 214 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.6GW
- 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
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,538 ha in 2016, 5,444 ha in 2017, 2,388 ha in 2018, 5,407 ha in 2019, 2,971 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,714 ha that had burned before.
- 3,570 ha Lunte fire, August 2019 4,211 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,971 ha Lunte fire, August 2020 4,123 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,668 ha Lunte fire, August 2016 3,984 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,764 ha Lunte fire, August 2019 3,983 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,398 ha Lunte fire, October 2017 4,685 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 44 ha Lunte fire, September 2018 3,571 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lunte where it started9,636 ha reached on 28 Aug1.2 %
-
306 ha reached on 31 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Aug | 28.7 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Aug | 28.6 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Aug | 27.5 °C | 19 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 31 Aug | 27.2 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 1 Sept | 27.7 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 2 Sept | 26.4 °C | 29 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 3 Sept | 26.6 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 4 Sept | 26.9 °C | 26 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Sept | 27.1 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 6 Sept | 28.1 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Sept | 28.1 °C | 27 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Sept | 27.3 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Sept | 28.1 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 10 Sept | 26.4 °C | 27 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 11 Sept | 24.4 °C | 29 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 12 Sept | 25.8 °C | 31 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Sept | 27.7 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 15 Sept after | 29.7 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Sept after | 30.3 °C | 28 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 17 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 24 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Sept after | 30.1 °C | 16 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Sept after | 27.8 °C | 27 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 20 Sept after | 28.3 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Sept after | 28.6 °C | 21 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Sept after | 28.0 °C | 25 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
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.
Detections table · 400Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 10,426 haLunte25 August 2026 · 22 days · 5 km away
- 9,207 haLunte1 September 2022 · 9 days · 5 km away
- 9,721 haLunte24 August 2025 · 12 days · 28 km away
- 12,606 haLunte5 September 2026 · 15 days · 32 km away
- 10,979 haMpulunguOctober 2022 · 15 days · 37 km away
- 8,975 haLunte11 October 2016 · 10 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lunte fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 August 2021 and 13 September 2021: 17 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 9,885 hectares (98.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lunte (9,636 ha, 1.2 %); Kasama (306 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.7 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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
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.