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Mpika fire, 17 September 2018 Mpika, Shiwang'Andu

Out · last detection 29 Sept 2018, 11:57 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2018 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,089 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 102th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 32 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Burnt area
9,089ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
17 Sept 2018 – 29 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
17 Sept
2018
Heat detections
339
in a single hotspot: 175 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
6.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept29 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

17181920212223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
44km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,360 ha in 2016, 1,600 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,620 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpika where it started
    7,494 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.4 %
  2. Shiwang'Andu
    1,644 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)
17 Sept 30.6 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Sept 30.1 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Sept 29.3 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Sept 29.8 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
21 Sept 29.0 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Sept 30.3 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Sept 29.5 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Sept 29.2 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Sept 29.8 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Sept 31.9 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Sept 31.4 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Sept 31.4 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Sept 31.2 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Sept after 27.4 °C 31 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
1 Oct after 24.4 °C 40 % 47 km/h 0.6 mm High 34
2 Oct after 28.4 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Oct after 30.2 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Oct after 31.6 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Oct after 29.4 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Oct after 29.5 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
7 Oct after 29.6 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Oct after 28.4 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Oct after 27.7 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2018
After · 6 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 · 339Every 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 17 September 2018 and 29 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 9,089 hectares (90.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpika (7,494 ha, 0.4 %); Shiwang'Andu (1,644 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 44 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.