Mpika fire, 11 September 2024 Mpika
The fire started on 11 September 2024 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,201 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 463th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 146 in Zambia in 2024, of 160.
The power measured by the satellite is low (28.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,201ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 11 Sept 2024 – 20 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 11 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 127
- in a single hotspot: 29 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.3 mm on 23 Sept.
This area had burned before
92% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,134 ha in 2016, 1,127 ha in 2017, 1,543 ha in 2018, 1,175 ha in 2019, 787 ha in 2020, 629 ha in 2021, 1,819 ha in 2022, 375 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,933 ha that had burned before.
- 1,105 ha Mpika fire, September 2019 3,519 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 940 ha Mpika fire, September 2018 3,547 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 787 ha Mpika fire, September 2020 3,852 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mpika where it started3,219 ha reached on 11 Sept0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Sept | 27.2 °C | 33 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 12 Sept | 27.2 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Sept | 28.5 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Sept | 28.5 °C | 23 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 15 Sept | 28.1 °C | 22 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 16 Sept | 28.7 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Sept | 29.0 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Sept | 29.2 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Sept | 30.5 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Sept | 30.8 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Sept after | 29.2 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 22 Sept after | 26.7 °C | 30 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 23 Sept after | 24.3 °C | 51 % | 49 km/h | 3.3 mm | Low 9 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 19 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 36 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 127Every 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 11 September 2024 and 20 September 2024: 10 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 3,201 hectares (32.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mpika (3,219 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 51 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.
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.