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Mpika fire, 26 September 2016 Mpika, Shiwang'Andu

Out · last detection 3 Oct 2016, 23:17 UTC

The fire started on 26 September 2016 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,187 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 223th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 94 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
5,187ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
26 Sept 2016 – 3 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
26 Sept
2016
Heat detections
237
in a single hotspot: 83 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Sept3 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2728293023

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
52km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 46 days 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
    4,490 ha reached on 24 Sept
    0.3 %
  2. Shiwang'Andu
    722 ha reached on 27 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
26 Sept 29.2 °C 23 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Sept 29.6 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Sept 29.2 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Sept 29.9 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Sept 29.4 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Oct 29.7 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Oct 30.9 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Oct 30.4 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
4 Oct after 26.0 °C 47 % 45 km/h 0.4 mm High 32
5 Oct after 28.2 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
6 Oct after 30.1 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Oct after 31.5 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Oct after 31.2 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Oct after 32.7 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
10 Oct after 31.0 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
11 Oct after 29.9 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Oct after 30.5 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Oct after 30.4 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Sept 2016
After · 10 Oct 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 · 237Every 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 26 September 2016 and 3 October 2016: 8 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 5,187 hectares (51.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpika (4,490 ha, 0.3 %); Shiwang'Andu (722 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % 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

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.