Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Mpika fire, 14 September 2016 Mpika

Out · last detection 18 Sept 2016, 22:58 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2016 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,508 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 403th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 516 with a page). Number 186 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
3,508ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
14 Sept 2016 – 17 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Sept
2016
Heat detections
97
in a single hotspot: 102 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
968MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept17 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
33km/h · peak gust
15%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. Mpika where it started
    3,535 ha reached on 14 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)
14 Sept 35.2 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Sept 35.3 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Sept 35.8 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Sept 36.7 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Sept after 37.5 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Sept after 35.0 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Sept after 32.7 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Sept after 33.1 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Sept after 33.7 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Sept after 35.2 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Sept after 36.2 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Sept after 35.9 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
26 Sept after 35.3 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Sept after 35.5 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2016
After · 24 Sept 2016

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 · 97Every 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 Mpika fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 September 2016 and 17 September 2016: 4 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 3,508 hectares (35.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mpika (3,535 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 33 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

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.