How long did the Lunte fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 September 2026 to 23 October 2026 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 October 2026 to 17 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,367 hectares (43.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Lunte (4,398 ha, 0.6 %).

Is the Lunte fire still active?

No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:51 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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 · 2026-09-28 → 2026-10-23

Lunte fire, 28 September 2026 Lunte

Dying down · last detection 23 Oct 2026, 11:51 UTC

The fire started on 28 September 2026 in Lunte, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,367 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 318th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 294 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.

Is it still active?

No detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:51 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. 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.

Burnt area: 4,367ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 26days; 28 Sept 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 28 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 83; in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start: 31; High · FWI index
Energy released: 855MW; sum of detected power

Play back 23 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Sept23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

28303567891013141516171819212223

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

46km/h · peak gust

22%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

86% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,737 ha in 2016, 1,369 ha in 2017, 280 ha in 2018, 1,867 ha in 2024, 2,565 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,762 ha that had burned before.

1,125 ha Lunte fire, October 2016 3,332 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Lunte where it started

4,398 ha reached on 28 Sept

0.6 %

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 Sept	30.6 °C	25 %	27 km/h	0.3 mm	High 31
29 Sept	31.2 °C	22 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	High 37
30 Sept	29.1 °C	26 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Oct	26.7 °C	35 %	42 km/h	1.5 mm	High 23
2 Oct	28.4 °C	37 %	34 km/h	6.2 mm	Low 6
3 Oct	27.1 °C	44 %	37 km/h	6.9 mm	Very low 4
4 Oct	28.0 °C	42 %	38 km/h	1.9 mm	Low 8
5 Oct	28.5 °C	36 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	Moderate 17
6 Oct	30.1 °C	26 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
7 Oct	31.0 °C	29 %	33 km/h	0.1 mm	High 25
8 Oct	30.2 °C	28 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
9 Oct	30.6 °C	24 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
10 Oct	30.0 °C	26 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
11 Oct	29.2 °C	30 %	43 km/h	0.1 mm	High 34
12 Oct	30.5 °C	30 %	39 km/h	0.2 mm	High 32
13 Oct	29.5 °C	33 %	38 km/h	1.3 mm	Moderate 21
14 Oct	30.0 °C	28 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 28
15 Oct	29.8 °C	26 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
16 Oct	29.6 °C	25 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
17 Oct	28.8 °C	25 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
18 Oct	28.8 °C	30 %	31 km/h	0.6 mm	High 27

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 21 Sept 2026

After · 23 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 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 81 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 45: 3.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak81 µg/m³

Days over the guideline20 days

PM1084 µg/m³

Optical depth1.49

WHO 15

26272829301234567891011121314151617

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 · 83Every 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 Lunte fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 September 2026 to 23 October 2026 (26 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 October 2026 to 17 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,367 hectares (43.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Lunte (4,398 ha, 0.6 %).
Is the Lunte fire still active?: No fire detections since 23 Oct 2026, 11:51 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.

Report an error

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.