How long did the Manyinga fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2025 and 23 September 2025: 15 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 9,538 hectares (95.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Manyinga (6,261 ha, 0.8 %); Mwinilunga (3,335 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.

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 · 2025-09-09 → 2025-09-23

Manyinga fire, September 2025 Manyinga, Mwinilunga

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2025, 12:50 UTC

The fire started on 9 September 2025 in Manyinga, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,538 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 26th largest in North-Western since 2016 (of 286 with a page). Number 44 in Zambia in 2025, of 271.

Burnt area: 9,538ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 15days; 9 Sept 2025 – 23 Sept 2025
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 9 Sept; 2025
Heat detections: 160; in a single hotspot: 82 MW
Danger at start: 56; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 2.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 24 Sept 2025

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131415161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

36°high

54km/h · peak gust

6%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.8 mm on 29 Sept.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,312 ha in 2016, 2,662 ha in 2017, 1,296 ha in 2018, 1,352 ha in 2019, 1,745 ha in 2020, 1,559 ha in 2022, 2,297 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,326 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Manyinga where it started

6,261 ha reached on 8 Sept

0.8 %
Mwinilunga

3,335 ha reached on 12 Sept

0.2 %

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)
9 Sept	33.7 °C	9 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
10 Sept	33.3 °C	12 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
11 Sept	33.2 °C	16 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
12 Sept	32.4 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
13 Sept	29.8 °C	22 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
14 Sept	33.5 °C	16 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
15 Sept	34.3 °C	10 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
16 Sept	35.1 °C	6 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
17 Sept	35.7 °C	9 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
18 Sept	36.0 °C	9 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
19 Sept	33.7 °C	13 %	49 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
20 Sept	34.5 °C	20 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
21 Sept	33.8 °C	16 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
22 Sept	34.7 °C	15 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
23 Sept	35.7 °C	12 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
24 Sept after	36.2 °C	9 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
25 Sept after	34.6 °C	14 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
26 Sept after	34.7 °C	14 %	48 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
27 Sept after	35.0 °C	15 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
28 Sept after	35.0 °C	22 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
29 Sept after	29.3 °C	33 %	29 km/h	1.8 mm	Moderate 20

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 2 Sept 2025

After · 30 Sept 2025

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 26 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 53 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak53 µg/m³

Days over the guideline20 days

PM1054 µg/m³

Optical depth1.05

WHO 15

7891011121314151617181920212223242526

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 · 160Every 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 Manyinga fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2025 and 23 September 2025: 15 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 9,538 hectares (95.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Manyinga (6,261 ha, 0.8 %); Mwinilunga (3,335 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
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.

Where it burned