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Mpika fire, 14 September 2016 Mpika, Lavushimanda

Out · last detection 22 Sept 2016, 12:16 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2016 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,277 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 124th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 516 with a page). Number 50 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
8,277ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
14 Sept 2016 – 22 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Sept
2016
Heat detections
242
in a single hotspot: 147 MW
Danger at start
56
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
45km/h · peak gust
14%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
    4,822 ha reached on 14 Sept
    0.3 %
  2. Lavushimanda
    3,524 ha reached on 15 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 36.0 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Sept 36.1 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Sept 36.6 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Sept 37.4 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
18 Sept 38.5 °C 14 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
19 Sept 35.6 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Sept 33.7 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Sept 34.5 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Sept 34.7 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept after 36.1 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Sept after 37.2 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Sept after 36.9 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Sept after 36.5 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
27 Sept after 36.3 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
28 Sept after 36.7 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Sept after 36.8 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Sept after 37.0 °C 18 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Oct after 36.8 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
2 Oct after 37.9 °C 17 % 27 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 · 7 Sept 2016
After · 29 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 · 242Every 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 22 September 2016: 9 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 8,277 hectares (82.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpika (4,822 ha, 0.3 %); Lavushimanda (3,524 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.

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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.