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Milengi fire, 10 August 2019 Milengi

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2019, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2019 in Milengi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 38 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 29,893 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 40th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 534 with a page). Number 9 in Zambia in 2019, of 243.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Milengi · 2018Milengi · 2017Milengi · 2016Milengi · 2016

Burnt area
29,893ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
38days
10 Aug 2019 – 16 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
10 Aug
2019
Heat detections
1,242
in a single hotspot: 150 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
365MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug16 Sept
16 Sept 2019

How it evolved, day by day

10 Aug 2019 · 50 MW · 8 11 Aug 2019 · 9 MW · 2 12 Aug 2019 · 98 MW · 9 13 Aug 2019 · 202 MW · 29 14 Aug 2019 · 70 MW · 16 15 Aug 2019 · 299 MW · 33 16 Aug 2019 · 191 MW · 26 17 Aug 2019 · 100 MW · 19 18 Aug 2019 · 310 MW · 34 19 Aug 2019 · 374 MW · 37 20 Aug 2019 · 307 MW · 44 21 Aug 2019 · 764 MW · 84 22 Aug 2019 · 649 MW · 64 23 Aug 2019 · 718 MW · 67 24 Aug 2019 · 553 MW · 51 25 Aug 2019 · 583 MW · 74 26 Aug 2019 · 415 MW · 43 27 Aug 2019 · 820 MW · 89 28 Aug 2019 · 427 MW · 26 29 Aug 2019 · 134 MW · 17 30 Aug 2019 · 658 MW · 93 31 Aug 2019 · 2,825 MW · 141 1 Sept 2019 · 1,182 MW · 91 2 Sept 2019 · 160 MW · 22 3 Sept 2019 · 146 MW · 27 4 Sept 2019 · 68 MW · 9 5 Sept 2019 · 92 MW · 13 6 Sept 2019 · 267 MW · 36 7 Sept 2019 · 165 MW · 18 9 Sept 2019 · 21 MW · 4 10 Sept 2019 · 19 MW · 4 11 Sept 2019 · 27 MW · 3 12 Sept 2019 · 10 MW · 4 15 Sept 2019 · 47 MW · 3 16 Sept 2019 · 8 MW · 2
10 Aug 15 Aug 20 Aug 25 Aug 30 Aug 31 Aug 4 Sept 10 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

33°high
52km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 12,302 ha in 2016, 17,044 ha in 2017, 19,011 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 27,128 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 19% of the area of London (299 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. Milengi where it started
    30,048 ha reached on 10 Aug
    4.9 %

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.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area30 ha
Residents≈ 1,300

Inside the perimeter there were about 30 hectares of built-up land and about 1,300 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
10 Aug 27.5 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Aug 27.3 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Aug 28.1 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Aug 29.7 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Aug 28.2 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Aug 26.6 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Aug 25.8 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Aug 26.1 °C 31 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Aug 26.9 °C 27 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Aug 25.6 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Aug 26.8 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Aug 26.1 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Aug 24.4 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Aug 25.3 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug 27.6 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Aug 28.5 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Aug 29.9 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Aug 31.1 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
28 Aug 31.1 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Aug 31.3 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Aug 30.5 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug 31.6 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Sept 33.2 °C 17 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Sept 32.5 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Sept 29.3 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Sept 29.3 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Sept 30.7 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Sept 30.5 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Sept 27.3 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
8 Sept 23.4 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Sept 26.7 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Sept 28.0 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Sept 30.9 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Sept 31.2 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Sept 32.3 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
14 Sept 32.8 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Sept 32.5 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept 30.9 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Sept after 31.3 °C 25 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Sept after 30.5 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Sept after 31.7 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Sept after 31.5 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Sept after 31.4 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Sept after 32.3 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Sept after 33.1 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Sept after 32.9 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Sept after 31.5 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Sept after 28.0 °C 29 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2019
After · 23 Sept 2019

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 1,242Every 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 Milengi fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 10 August 2019 to 16 September 2019 (38 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 August 2019 to 9 September 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 29,893 hectares (298.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Milengi (30,048 ha, 4.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 9 September 2019 → 16 September 2019.
  2. Start date: 17 August 2019 → 10 August 2019.

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; 4 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 17 August 2019 to 9 September 2019. 1,242 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.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

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.