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Luwingu fire, 15 August 2026 Luwingu

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2026, 11:15 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2026 in Luwingu, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,183 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 138th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 132 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.

Burnt area
7,183ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
15 Aug 2026 – 20 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Aug
2026
Heat detections
166
in a single hotspot: 50 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug20 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

151617192021

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
45km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,189 ha in 2016, 737 ha in 2017, 549 ha in 2018, 583 ha in 2019, 885 ha in 2020, 2,347 ha in 2022, 2,131 ha in 2024, 1,513 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,725 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Luwingu where it started
    7,230 ha reached on 8 Aug
    1.5 %

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)
8 Aug 27.2 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Aug 27.4 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
10 Aug 29.4 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Aug 29.7 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Aug 29.2 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Aug 26.4 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Aug 24.7 °C 40 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Aug 24.8 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Aug 25.1 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Aug 26.0 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Aug 26.6 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Aug 26.5 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug 26.5 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Aug after 26.9 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Aug after 28.3 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Aug after 27.5 °C 37 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Aug after 28.8 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Aug after 27.9 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Aug after 29.0 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Aug after 28.9 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Aug after 27.9 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Aug after 28.5 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Aug after 29.2 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Aug after 29.5 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Sept after 29.3 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Sept after 29.4 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Sept after 30.0 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Sept after 31.9 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Sept after 29.9 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Sept after 29.9 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2026
After · 27 Aug 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 20 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 132 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 62: 4.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak132 µg/m³
Days over the guideline20 days
PM10134 µg/m³
Optical depth0.97
6789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930
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 · 166Every 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 Luwingu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2026 and 20 August 2026: 6 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 7,183 hectares (71.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Luwingu (7,230 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class 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.

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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.