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Mpika fire, 14 September 2018 Mpika, Shiwang'Andu

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2018, 12:10 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2018 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,168 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 151th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 47 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Burnt area
7,168ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
14 Sept 2018 – 22 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Sept
2018
Heat detections
277
in a single hotspot: 83 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181920212223

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
49km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,657 ha in 2016, 862 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpika where it started
    6,927 ha reached on 7 Sept
    0.4 %
  2. Shiwang'Andu
    265 ha reached on 19 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)
14 Sept 30.2 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Sept 30.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Sept 30.6 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Sept 31.0 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Sept 30.4 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept 29.3 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Sept 30.1 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Sept 28.8 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Sept 30.7 °C 20 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Sept after 29.6 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Sept after 29.5 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Sept after 30.1 °C 21 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Sept after 32.0 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Sept after 31.8 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Sept after 31.3 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Sept after 31.2 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Sept after 28.1 °C 29 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Oct after 23.8 °C 45 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
2 Oct after 26.8 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.4 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2018
After · 29 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 · 277Every 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 2018 and 22 September 2018: 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 7,168 hectares (71.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpika (6,927 ha, 0.4 %); Shiwang'Andu (265 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.