Mafinga fire, 17 September 2026 Mafinga
The fire started on 17 September 2026 in Mafinga, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,987 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 183th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 170 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.
The power measured by the satellite is low (29.6 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
- 5,987ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 29days
- 17 Sept 2026 – 15 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 110
- in a single hotspot: 30 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 804MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,766 ha in 2016, 1,694 ha in 2017, 115 ha in 2021, 2,472 ha in 2023, 2,213 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,190 ha that had burned before.
- 2,472 ha Mafinga fire, September 2023 4,006 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,694 ha Mafinga fire, October 2017 4,308 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 160 ha Mafinga fire, September 2025 15,016 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mafinga where it started6,027 ha reached on 17 Sept1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Sept | 28.3 °C | 17 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 18 Sept | 28.8 °C | 29 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 19 Sept | 28.9 °C | 27 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 20 Sept | 30.4 °C | 20 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 21 Sept | 30.6 °C | 26 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 22 Sept | 29.9 °C | 27 % | 24 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Sept | 29.7 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 2.4 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 24 Sept | 29.3 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 25 Sept | 30.2 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 26 Sept | 30.6 °C | 30 % | 48 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Sept | 30.8 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Sept | 32.6 °C | 17 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 29 Sept | 32.8 °C | 17 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 30 Sept | 30.0 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 45 |
| 1 Oct | 29.2 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 2 Oct | 28.4 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 1.9 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 3 Oct | 28.2 °C | 40 % | 34 km/h | 2.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 4 Oct | 30.3 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 5 Oct | 30.2 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Oct | 32.4 °C | 19 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Oct | 31.8 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Oct | 32.9 °C | 19 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 Oct | 32.3 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Oct | 32.3 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 11 Oct | 31.2 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 38 |
| 12 Oct | 30.9 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 13 Oct | 31.2 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Oct | 30.7 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Oct | 30.3 °C | 26 % | 44 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Oct after | 31.2 °C | 21 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Oct after | 29.7 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Oct after | 30.1 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 39 |
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 9 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 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 · 110Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 15,016 haMafingaSeptember 2025 · 30 days · 10 km away
- 21,909 haMafinga 6 October 2026 · 18 days · 22 km away
- 20,303 haMafinga16 October 2017 · 10 days · 22 km away
- 21,255 haMafinga9 October 2016 · 15 days · 24 km away
- 13,496 haMafingaOctober 2019 · 13 days · 24 km away
- 11,134 haMafinga11 October 2017 · 11 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mafinga fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 September 2026 to 15 October 2026 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 September 2026 to 8 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,987 hectares (59.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mafinga (6,027 ha, 1.4 %).
- Is the Mafinga fire still active?
- No fire detections since 16 Oct 2026, 11:28 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.