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Chipili fire, July 2026 Lupososhi, Kawambwa, Chipili

Out · last detection 28 Sept 2026, 12:42 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2026 in Chipili, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 65 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 156,557 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 10th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 534 with a page). Number 7 in Zambia in 2026, of 616.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Kawambwa · 2016Chipili · 2024Lupososhi · 2021Kawambwa · 2019

Burnt area
156,557ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
65days
25 Jul 2026 – 27 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
4
districts
Started on
25 Jul
2026
Heat detections
7,197
in a single hotspot: 282 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Average daily power
1.4GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul27 Sept
28 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

25 Jul 2026 · 190 MW · 17 28 Jul 2026 · 5 MW · 1 29 Jul 2026 · 2 MW · 1 30 Jul 2026 · 114 MW · 12 31 Jul 2026 · 32 MW · 5 1 Aug 2026 · 62 MW · 9 2 Aug 2026 · 85 MW · 9 5 Aug 2026 · 661 MW · 20 6 Aug 2026 · 197 MW · 18 7 Aug 2026 · 370 MW · 32 8 Aug 2026 · 945 MW · 105 9 Aug 2026 · 376 MW · 53 10 Aug 2026 · 847 MW · 58 11 Aug 2026 · 709 MW · 90 12 Aug 2026 · 847 MW · 114 13 Aug 2026 · 299 MW · 35 14 Aug 2026 · 248 MW · 34 15 Aug 2026 · 423 MW · 34 16 Aug 2026 · 705 MW · 74 17 Aug 2026 · 1,042 MW · 80 18 Aug 2026 · 26 MW · 13 19 Aug 2026 · 2,638 MW · 259 20 Aug 2026 · 1,880 MW · 188 21 Aug 2026 · 2,590 MW · 182 22 Aug 2026 · 4,509 MW · 311 23 Aug 2026 · 575 MW · 49 24 Aug 2026 · 1,957 MW · 216 25 Aug 2026 · 1,690 MW · 192 26 Aug 2026 · 1,477 MW · 142 27 Aug 2026 · 3,018 MW · 282 28 Aug 2026 · 858 MW · 114 29 Aug 2026 · 545 MW · 67 30 Aug 2026 · 2,086 MW · 211 31 Aug 2026 · 2,028 MW · 169 1 Sept 2026 · 2,717 MW · 264 2 Sept 2026 · 4,354 MW · 284 3 Sept 2026 · 3,950 MW · 333 4 Sept 2026 · 1,621 MW · 143 5 Sept 2026 · 2,368 MW · 222 6 Sept 2026 · 1,514 MW · 104 7 Sept 2026 · 5,934 MW · 485 8 Sept 2026 · 5,213 MW · 403 9 Sept 2026 · 2,661 MW · 263 10 Sept 2026 · 1,550 MW · 175 11 Sept 2026 · 1,028 MW · 101 12 Sept 2026 · 2,529 MW · 214 13 Sept 2026 · 1,422 MW · 134 14 Sept 2026 · 2,393 MW · 171 15 Sept 2026 · 1,190 MW · 106 16 Sept 2026 · 2,420 MW · 179 17 Sept 2026 · 1,066 MW · 102 18 Sept 2026 · 1,280 MW · 107 19 Sept 2026 · 143 MW · 12 20 Sept 2026 · 519 MW · 26 22 Sept 2026 · 332 MW · 20 23 Sept 2026 · 1,597 MW · 66 24 Sept 2026 · 826 MW · 44 25 Sept 2026 · 635 MW · 29 26 Sept 2026 · 79 MW · 8 27 Sept 2026 · 20 MW · 2 28 Sept 2026 · 33 MW · 4
25 Jul 7 Aug 16 Aug 25 Aug 3 Sept 7 Sept 12 Sept 22 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

32°high
56km/h · peak gust
24%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

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 91,204 ha in 2016, 79,077 ha in 2017, 69,660 ha in 2018, 84,059 ha in 2019, 59,055 ha in 2020, 83,689 ha in 2021, 69,938 ha in 2022, 60,173 ha in 2023, 68,820 ha in 2024, 81,306 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 154,848 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned almost the same area as London (1,566 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Lupososhi
    73,876 ha reached on 25 Jul
    18 %
  2. Kawambwa
    58,773 ha reached on 30 Jul
    7.3 %
  3. Chipili where it started
    24,826 ha reached on 25 Jul
    5.8 %
  4. Luwingu
    58 ha reached on 11 Aug
    0.0 %

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)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
25 Jul 25.8 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Jul 25.2 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Jul 24.6 °C 41 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Jul 26.1 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
29 Jul 26.8 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Jul 26.1 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
31 Jul 25.6 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
1 Aug 23.8 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Aug 24.0 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
3 Aug 23.9 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 Aug 24.5 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Aug 25.2 °C 39 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Aug 25.8 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Aug 26.7 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
8 Aug 26.9 °C 42 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
9 Aug 27.4 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
10 Aug 29.9 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
11 Aug 29.7 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Aug 28.4 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Aug 25.7 °C 43 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Aug 23.4 °C 45 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Aug 24.4 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Aug 24.8 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Aug 25.6 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Aug 26.3 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Aug 26.0 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Aug 26.1 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Aug 26.3 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Aug 27.9 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Aug 27.6 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Aug 28.3 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Aug 27.7 °C 40 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Aug 28.6 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Aug 28.4 °C 38 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Aug 27.1 °C 39 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Aug 28.0 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Aug 29.3 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Aug 29.4 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Sept 29.0 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Sept 29.3 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Sept 30.5 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Sept 31.4 °C 30 % 25 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
5 Sept 29.6 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Sept 29.7 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Sept 29.9 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Sept 27.5 °C 34 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept 27.4 °C 38 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Sept 28.0 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Sept 29.1 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Sept 30.0 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept 30.5 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Sept 30.7 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Sept 30.9 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Sept 30.9 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Sept 29.8 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Sept 30.3 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Sept 30.5 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Sept 31.6 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Sept 30.0 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Sept 30.7 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Sept 30.7 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm High 36
24 Sept 30.3 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
25 Sept 30.1 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
26 Sept 31.2 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Sept 32.0 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
28 Sept after 32.4 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Sept after 31.5 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
30 Sept after 30.7 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Oct after 29.4 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Oct after 27.6 °C 47 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 29
3 Oct after 27.6 °C 50 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
4 Oct after 30.0 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.5 mm High 30
5 Oct after 28.4 °C 45 % 39 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jul 2026
After · 4 Oct 2026

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 5 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 236 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 127: 8.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak236 µg/m³
Days over the guideline61 days
PM10242 µg/m³
Optical depth1.88
23242526272829303112345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930
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 · 7,197Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chipili fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 July 2026 to 27 September 2026 (65 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 August 2026 to 21 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 156,557 hectares (1,565.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Lupososhi (73,876 ha, 18 %); Kawambwa (58,773 ha, 7.3 %); Chipili (24,826 ha, 5.8 %); Luwingu (58 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Name: Lupososhi → Chipili.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 9 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 1 August 2026 to 21 September 2026. 7,197 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.