How long did the Mpika fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 October 2016 and 25 October 2016: 24 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 37,949 hectares (379.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Mpika (38,129 ha, 2.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 46 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.

ZM · Zambia · 2016-10-02 → 2016-10-25

Mpika fire, 2 October 2016 Mpika

Out · last detection 26 Oct 2016, 11:39 UTC

The fire started on 2 October 2016 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 37,949 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 15th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 516 with a page). Number 6 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area: 37,949ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 24days; 2 Oct 2016 – 25 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 2 Oct; 2016
Heat detections: 1,590; in a single hotspot: 128 MW
Danger at start: 52; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 13.1GW; sum of detected power

Play back 26 Oct 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Oct25 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

234567891011121314151617181920212223242526

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

46km/h · peak gust

15%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 1 Nov.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Mpika where it started

38,129 ha reached on 30 Sept

2.2 %

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)
30 Sept	34.6 °C	20 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
1 Oct	34.2 °C	21 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
2 Oct	35.7 °C	18 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
3 Oct	35.8 °C	20 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
4 Oct	30.8 °C	39 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
5 Oct	33.6 °C	28 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
6 Oct	35.3 °C	21 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
7 Oct	36.9 °C	18 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
8 Oct	36.7 °C	17 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
9 Oct	37.5 °C	15 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
10 Oct	36.3 °C	17 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
11 Oct	35.6 °C	20 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
12 Oct	35.8 °C	19 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
13 Oct	36.4 °C	17 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
14 Oct	35.8 °C	18 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
15 Oct	34.9 °C	19 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
16 Oct	35.7 °C	16 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
17 Oct	37.3 °C	15 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
18 Oct	36.6 °C	19 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 61
19 Oct	34.9 °C	17 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 60
20 Oct	35.0 °C	17 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 59
21 Oct	35.5 °C	16 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
22 Oct	36.8 °C	16 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
23 Oct	37.1 °C	17 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
24 Oct	37.8 °C	17 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 56
25 Oct	36.8 °C	20 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
26 Oct after	36.3 °C	20 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
27 Oct after	35.9 °C	20 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 58
28 Oct after	36.7 °C	20 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
29 Oct after	36.6 °C	23 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 57
30 Oct after	35.7 °C	24 %	28 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 40
31 Oct after	37.6 °C	21 %	51 km/h	0.7 mm	Extreme 56
1 Nov after	36.2 °C	25 %	46 km/h	1.0 mm	Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 25 Sept 2016

After · 1 Nov 2016

Before After

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 · 1,590Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mpika fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 October 2016 and 25 October 2016: 24 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 37,949 hectares (379.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Mpika (38,129 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 46 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned