Mpika fire, 9 October 2022 Mpika
The fire started on 9 October 2022 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,374 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 419th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 179 in Zambia in 2022, of 235.
- Burnt area
- 3,374ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 9 Oct 2022 – 11 Oct 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 9 Oct
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 77
- in a single hotspot: 259 MW
- Danger at start
- 49
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 47 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 474 ha in 2016, 1,835 ha in 2017, 1,002 ha in 2018, 140 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,490 ha that had burned before.
- 1,077 ha Mpika fire, September 2017 6,896 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,002 ha Mpika fire, September 2018 5,048 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 135 ha Mpika fire, September 2020 4,648 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4 ha Mpika fire, October 2020 4,029 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mpika where it started3,388 ha reached on 8 Oct0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Oct | 32.3 °C | 18 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 10 Oct | 34.4 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 11 Oct | 34.4 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 12 Oct after | 33.6 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 13 Oct after | 34.7 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 14 Oct after | 35.0 °C | 13 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 15 Oct after | 35.2 °C | 15 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 16 Oct after | 35.0 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 17 Oct after | 35.3 °C | 18 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 18 Oct after | 35.5 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 19 Oct after | 36.2 °C | 19 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 20 Oct after | 34.8 °C | 20 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 21 Oct after | 35.4 °C | 20 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
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 · 77Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mpika fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2022 and 11 October 2022: 3 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 3,374 hectares (33.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mpika (3,388 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 40 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.