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Mpika fire, 13 September 2018 Mpika, Lavushimanda

Out · last detection 25 Sept 2018, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 13 September 2018 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,632 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 39th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 17 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Burnt area
18,632ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
13 Sept 2018 – 25 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
13 Sept
2018
Heat detections
788
in a single hotspot: 51 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Sept25 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

13141516171819202122232425

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
41km/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

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,116 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpika where it started
    15,270 ha reached on 12 Sept
    0.9 %
  2. Lavushimanda
    3,523 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)
13 Sept 35.3 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Sept 36.4 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept 37.3 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
16 Sept 37.2 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Sept 37.6 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Sept 37.6 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Sept 36.5 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Sept 35.9 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
21 Sept 35.3 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Sept 37.2 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Sept 36.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Sept 36.1 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Sept 35.8 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Sept after 38.0 °C 13 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 Sept after 37.5 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
28 Sept after 37.7 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
29 Sept after 38.5 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
30 Sept after 33.5 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Oct after 31.7 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Oct after 33.8 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Oct after 36.4 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Oct after 38.0 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Oct after 35.7 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Sept 2018
After · 2 Oct 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 · 788Every 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 13 September 2018 and 25 September 2018: 13 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 18,632 hectares (186.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpika (15,270 ha, 0.9 %); Lavushimanda (3,523 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.