Lunte fire, October 2025 Lunte, Mpulungu
The fire started on 13 October 2025 in Lunte, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,196 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 173th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 78 in Zambia in 2025, of 271.
- Burnt area
- 6,196ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 13 Oct 2025 – 22 Oct 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 149
- in a single hotspot: 161 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 242MW
- detected power per day, on average
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. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 25 Oct.
This area had burned before
86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,411 ha in 2016, 1,130 ha in 2017, 1,135 ha in 2019, 2,930 ha in 2021, 939 ha in 2022, 2,295 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,329 ha that had burned before.
- 2,404 ha Lunte fire, October 2016 4,254 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,295 ha Lunte fire, October 2023 3,023 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,130 ha Lunte fire, October 2017 4,685 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Lunte where it started6,189 ha reached on 13 Oct0.8 %
-
40 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct | 30.3 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 14 Oct | 29.9 °C | 20 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 15 Oct | 30.0 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 16 Oct | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Oct | 29.6 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Oct | 29.5 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 19 Oct | 30.2 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 20 Oct | 28.9 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Oct | 29.2 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 22 Oct | 29.2 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Oct after | 28.9 °C | 30 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Oct after | 29.2 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Oct after | 27.8 °C | 40 % | 28 km/h | 3.2 mm | Low 8 |
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 24 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 52: 3.4 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 · 149Every 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 Lunte fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 October 2025 and 22 October 2025: 10 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 6,196 hectares (62.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lunte (6,189 ha, 0.8 %); Mpulungu (40 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.