Machinga fire, July 2026 Machinga
The fire started on 22 July 2026 in Machinga, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,406 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 42th largest in Southern Region since 2016 (of 104 with a page). Number 45 in Malawi in 2026, of 91.
The power measured by the satellite is low (17.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 1,406ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 22 Jul 2026 – 25 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 22 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 16
- in a single hotspot: 18 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 118MW
- 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 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Machinga where it started1,414 ha reached on 22 Jul0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jul | 27.2 °C | 44 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 23 Jul | 26.7 °C | 45 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 24 Jul | 27.9 °C | 36 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 25 Jul | 25.8 °C | 40 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Jul after | 22.2 °C | 48 % | 32 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 27 Jul after | 21.3 °C | 57 % | 22 km/h | 0.4 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 28 Jul after | 25.0 °C | 42 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 29 Jul after | 25.2 °C | 41 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Jul after | 26.9 °C | 40 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 31 Jul after | 27.0 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 1 Aug after | 22.0 °C | 53 % | 28 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 24 |
| 2 Aug after | 22.6 °C | 49 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 3 Aug after | 25.2 °C | 42 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 4 Aug after | 26.1 °C | 39 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
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 28 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 19: 1.3 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 · 16Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,955 haMangochiAugust 2019 · 6 days · 19 km away
- 3,110 haMachinga15 September 2017 · 4 days · 19 km away
- 1,703 haMachinga9 September 2025 · 6 days · 20 km away
- 5,724 haMachinga20 September 2018 · 4 days · 21 km away
- 1,832 haMachingaSeptember 2021 · 2 days · 21 km away
- 1,688 haMangochi2 October 2022 · 7 days · 27 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Machinga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 July 2026 and 25 July 2026: 4 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 1,406 hectares (14.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Machinga (1,414 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Malawi (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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.