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Mpika fire, 29 September 2022 Mpika

Out · last detection 5 Oct 2022, 22:59 UTC

The fire started on 29 September 2022 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,816 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 345th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 155 in Zambia in 2022, of 235.

Burnt area
3,816ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
29 Sept 2022 – 6 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
29 Sept
2022
Heat detections
115
in a single hotspot: 49 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
687MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Oct 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Sept6 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

293012345

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
33km/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

83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,042 ha in 2016, 1,155 ha in 2017, 1,761 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,161 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpika where it started
    3,846 ha reached on 29 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)
29 Sept 34.1 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Sept 33.7 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Oct 34.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Oct 35.4 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Oct 34.4 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Oct 35.2 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Oct 36.6 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
6 Oct 36.5 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Oct after 35.6 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Oct after 35.5 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
9 Oct after 32.7 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Oct after 35.8 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Oct after 35.5 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
12 Oct after 35.2 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
13 Oct after 36.0 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Oct after 36.2 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Oct after 35.5 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
16 Oct after 36.0 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Sept 2022
After · 13 Oct 2022

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 · 115Every 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 29 September 2022 and 6 October 2022: 8 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 3,816 hectares (38.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mpika (3,846 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, 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.