Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Mkushi fire, August 2020 Mkushi

Out · last detection 17 Aug 2020, 11:56 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2020 in Mkushi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,063 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 388th largest in Central since 2016 (of 401 with a page). Number 223 in Zambia in 2020, of 229.

The power measured by the satellite is low (19.2 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
3,063ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
10 Aug 2020 – 16 Aug 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
10 Aug
2020
Heat detections
101
in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
637MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Aug 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug16 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
55km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mkushi where it started
    3,085 ha reached on 6 Aug
    0.4 %

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)
10 Aug 25.8 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Aug 25.0 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
12 Aug 25.8 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 Aug 26.1 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Aug 25.1 °C 14 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Aug 25.4 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Aug 27.7 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Aug after 27.9 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Aug after 28.6 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Aug after 29.6 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Aug after 25.8 °C 39 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug after 25.4 °C 39 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug after 22.4 °C 47 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Aug after 23.1 °C 41 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Aug after 25.5 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Aug after 27.1 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Aug after 29.9 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2020
After · 23 Aug 2020

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 · 101Every 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 Mkushi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 August 2020 and 16 August 2020: 7 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 3,063 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mkushi (3,085 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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

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?

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.