Mpika fire, October 2020 Mpika, Chama
The fire started on 5 October 2020 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,029 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 316th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 139 in Zambia in 2020, of 229.
- Burnt area
- 4,029ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 5 Oct 2020 – 9 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Oct
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 110
- in a single hotspot: 54 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 14 Oct.
This area had burned before
60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,095 ha in 2016, 63 ha in 2017, 702 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,418 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mpika where it started3,881 ha reached on 5 Oct0.2 %
-
166 ha reached on 6 Oct0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Oct | 37.5 °C | 19 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 6 Oct | 37.0 °C | 19 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 7 Oct | 36.4 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Oct | 36.5 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 Oct | 35.9 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 5.3 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 10 Oct after | 35.6 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 11 Oct after | 37.3 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 12 Oct after | 35.7 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 13 Oct after | 34.6 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Oct after | 33.4 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 2.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 110Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 17,411 haMpika26 September 2017 · 16 days · 17 km away
- 22,352 haMpika18 September 2020 · 12 days · 20 km away
- 12,069 haMpika7 August 2026 · 10 days · 24 km away
- 37,949 haMpika2 October 2016 · 24 days · 27 km away
- 11,358 haChama23 September 2016 · 14 days · 30 km away
- 15,263 haChama6 September 2025 · 25 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mpika fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 October 2020 and 9 October 2020: 5 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 4,029 hectares (40.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpika (3,881 ha, 0.2 %); Chama (166 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.
Report an error
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.