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Mpika fire, 4 September 2018 Mpika, Lavushimanda

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2018, 23:23 UTC

The fire started on 4 September 2018 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,658 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 372th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 134 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Burnt area
3,658ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
4 Sept 2018 – 13 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
4 Sept
2018
Heat detections
137
in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start
50
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
529MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Sept13 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

4567891012

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
42km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 563 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpika where it started
    3,446 ha reached on 4 Sept
    0.2 %
  2. Lavushimanda
    244 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.0 %

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)
4 Sept 35.1 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Sept 33.2 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Sept 34.5 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Sept 34.2 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Sept 34.2 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Sept 36.2 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Sept 34.6 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.5 mm Very high 47
11 Sept 33.0 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Sept 34.2 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept 35.0 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Sept after 36.1 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept after 37.0 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept after 36.9 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Sept after 37.3 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept after 37.3 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Sept after 36.2 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Sept after 35.6 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Sept after 35.0 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Sept after 36.9 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Sept after 35.8 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Aug 2018
After · 20 Sept 2018

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 · 137Every 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 4 September 2018 and 13 September 2018: 10 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 3,658 hectares (36.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpika (3,446 ha, 0.2 %); Lavushimanda (244 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.