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Mpika fire, 14 October 2022 Mpika, Lavushimanda

Out · last detection 22 Oct 2022, 22:40 UTC

The fire started on 14 October 2022 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,038 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 502th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 227 in Zambia in 2022, of 235.

Burnt area
3,038ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
14 Oct 2022 – 22 Oct 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
14 Oct
2022
Heat detections
121
in a single hotspot: 82 MW
Danger at start
55
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Oct 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Oct22 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
38km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

74% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 727 ha in 2016, 2,026 ha in 2018, 447 ha in 2019, 856 ha in 2020, 46 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,233 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpika where it started
    1,654 ha reached on 14 Oct
    0.1 %
  2. Lavushimanda
    1,409 ha reached on 14 Oct
    0.1 %

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 Oct 37.0 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Oct 36.2 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Oct 36.7 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Oct 37.3 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Oct 36.9 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
19 Oct 37.4 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Oct 36.2 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Oct 37.9 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Oct 37.5 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
23 Oct after 37.9 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
24 Oct after 37.8 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Oct after 37.2 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Oct after 39.7 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Oct after 39.8 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
28 Oct after 38.6 °C 15 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Oct after 39.3 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Oct after 37.8 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
31 Oct after 39.3 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Nov after 40.5 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Oct 2022
After · 29 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 · 121Every 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 October 2022 and 22 October 2022: 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 3,038 hectares (30.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpika (1,654 ha, 0.1 %); Lavushimanda (1,409 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, 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.