Milengi fire, 23 August 2020 Milengi, Chembe
The fire started on 23 August 2020 in Milengi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,575 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 54th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 534 with a page). Number 13 in Zambia in 2020, of 229.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 25,575ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 24days
- 23 Aug 2020 – 15 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 865
- in a single hotspot: 110 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 404MW
- detected power per day, on average
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
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,809 ha in 2016, 10,781 ha in 2017, 15,033 ha in 2018, 14,685 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 23,834 ha that had burned before.
- 6,683 ha Milengi fire, August 2019 29,893 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,870 ha Milengi fire, August 2016 9,146 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,598 ha Milengi fire, August 2017 9,191 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,476 ha Milengi fire, August 2018 24,279 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,896 ha Chembe fire, August 2019 5,709 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,433 ha Chembe fire, August 2018 5,748 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,488 ha Milengi fire, August 2018 4,358 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,378 ha Milengi fire, August 2016 4,112 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Milengi where it started15,946 ha reached on 23 Aug2.6 %
-
9,784 ha reached on 23 Aug4.5 %
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 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 35 hectares of built-up land and about 2,300 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Aug | 26.8 °C | 33 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Aug | 27.3 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 25 Aug | 30.1 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Aug | 30.4 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 27 Aug | 31.4 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Aug | 31.8 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Aug | 32.4 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 30 Aug | 33.8 °C | 24 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 31 Aug | 32.6 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 1 Sept | 31.3 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 2 Sept | 29.1 °C | 28 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Sept | 29.2 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Sept | 28.6 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 5 Sept | 28.1 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Sept | 28.3 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Sept | 28.7 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Sept | 29.6 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Sept | 28.3 °C | 21 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 10 Sept | 28.3 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 11 Sept | 29.2 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 12 Sept | 29.2 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 13 Sept | 29.9 °C | 29 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 14 Sept | 31.3 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 15 Sept | 32.6 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 23 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Sept after | 33.8 °C | 20 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 18 Sept after | 33.0 °C | 22 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 19 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 24 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 21 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 22 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Sept after | 33.2 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Sept after | 30.5 °C | 29 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 24 Sept after | 31.1 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 21 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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.
Detections table · 865Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 167,326 haMilengi17 July 2026 · 54 days · 7 km away
- 41,279 haMilengi6 August 2021 · 38 days · 8 km away
- 29,893 haMilengi10 August 2019 · 38 days · 11 km away
- 169,563 haMilengi3 August 2026 · 20 days · 24 km away
- 24,279 haMilengi9 August 2018 · 37 days · 29 km away
- 37,052 haMilengi16 August 2017 · 31 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Milengi fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 23 August 2020 to 15 September 2020 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 29 August 2020 to 8 September 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 25,575 hectares (255.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Milengi (15,946 ha, 2.6 %); Chembe (9,784 ha, 4.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 8 September 2020 → 15 September 2020.
- Start date: 29 August 2020 → 23 August 2020.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 29 August 2020 to 8 September 2020. 865 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.
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.