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ZM · Zambia · →

Milengi fire, 12 July 2026 Milengi

Out · last measured on 13 Jul 2026

The fire started on 12 July 2026 in Milengi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,430 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 441th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 458 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.

We have the GWIS perimeter for this fire, but not yet its hotspots: NASA publishes the yearly hotspot archive only once the year closes. The page picks them up automatically when they are available.

Burnt area
3,430ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
12 Jul 2026 – 13 Jul 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
12 Jul
2026
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index

Where it burned

The weather it burned in

28°high
32km/h · peak gust
34%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,409 ha in 2016, 52 ha in 2018, 1,741 ha in 2019, 59 ha in 2020, 272 ha in 2021, 797 ha in 2023, 34 ha in 2024, 2,104 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,889 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Milengi where it started
    3,455 ha
    0.6 %

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)
12 Jul 27.6 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Jul 26.9 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Jul after 26.6 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Jul after 25.4 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Jul after 24.6 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Jul after 24.4 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Jul after 24.7 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Jul after 25.5 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Jul after 26.8 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Jul after 27.9 °C 25 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Jul after 27.4 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Jul after 27.2 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Jul 2026
After · 20 Jul 2026

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 14 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 48 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 25: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak48 µg/m³
Days over the guideline5 days
PM1050 µg/m³
Optical depth0.60
10111213141516
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)

Other fires nearby

All fires in Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Milengi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 July 2026 and 13 July 2026: 2 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 3,430 hectares (34.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Milengi (3,455 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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.

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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.