Mpika fire, 26 September 2024 Mpika, Shiwang'Andu
The fire started on 26 September 2024 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,023 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 509th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 516 with a page). Number 159 in Zambia in 2024, of 160.
- Burnt area
- 3,023ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 26 Sept 2024 – 29 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 26 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 72
- in a single hotspot: 116 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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 one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.3 mm on 3 Oct.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 905 ha in 2016, 852 ha in 2017, 2,067 ha in 2018, 1,099 ha in 2019, 1,577 ha in 2020, 482 ha in 2021, 632 ha in 2022, 2,060 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,040 ha that had burned before.
- 1,577 ha Shiwang'Andu fire, September 2020 30,642 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,241 ha Mpika fire, September 2018 7,168 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 128 ha Shiwang'Andu fire, September 2023 11,365 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 67 ha Shiwang'Andu fire, September 2019 4,093 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 63 ha Shiwang'Andu fire, September 2016 9,623 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11 ha Shiwang'Andu fire, September 2018 4,000 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6 ha Mpika fire, September 2019 5,487 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mpika where it started1,529 ha reached on 28 Sept0.1 %
-
1,508 ha reached on 28 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Sept | 30.3 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 27 Sept | 31.0 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Sept | 30.6 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 29 Sept | 31.7 °C | 21 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 30 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 21 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Oct after | 32.8 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Oct after | 28.5 °C | 32 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 3 Oct after | 22.6 °C | 60 % | 54 km/h | 4.3 mm | Low 6 |
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 30 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 75 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 48: 3.2 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 · 72Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 89,894 haShiwang'Andu10 September 2025 · 30 days · 5 km away
- 20,194 haShiwang'Andu20 September 2026 · 11 days · 10 km away
- 30,642 haShiwang'Andu4 September 2020 · 29 days · 12 km away
- 33,570 haShiwang'Andu7 September 2026 · 24 days · 30 km away
- 38,067 haShiwang'Andu 20 September 2026 · 34 days · 35 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mpika fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 September 2024 and 29 September 2024: 4 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 3,023 hectares (30.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpika (1,529 ha, 0.1 %); Shiwang'Andu (1,508 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.