Mpika fire, August 2025 Mpika
The fire started on 27 August 2025 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,944 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 42th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 516 with a page). Number 22 in Zambia in 2025, of 271.
- Burnt area
- 17,944ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 23days
- 27 Aug 2025 – 18 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 567
- in a single hotspot: 99 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.5GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,336 ha in 2016, 5,864 ha in 2017, 6,917 ha in 2018, 1,278 ha in 2019, 10,296 ha in 2020, 3,983 ha in 2021, 1,440 ha in 2023, 512 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 16,902 ha that had burned before.
- 8,932 ha Mpika fire, September 2020 29,588 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,909 ha Mpika fire, October 2018 10,309 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,864 ha Mpika fire, October 2017 31,521 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,388 ha Mpika fire, October 2021 3,953 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,004 ha Mpika fire, October 2016 37,949 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 389 ha Mpika fire, October 2016 7,360 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mpika where it started18,039 ha reached on 27 Aug1.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Aug | 30.4 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 28 Aug | 31.3 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Aug | 30.5 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 30 Aug | 30.7 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 31 Aug | 30.9 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 1 Sept | 30.9 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Sept | 29.8 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Sept | 29.1 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 4 Sept | 31.2 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 5 Sept | 31.5 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Sept | 31.7 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 7 Sept | 31.5 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 Sept | 31.9 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Sept | 32.4 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Sept | 32.3 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 11 Sept | 33.0 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Sept | 32.1 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 13 Sept | 32.2 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Sept | 33.0 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 15 Sept | 33.5 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Sept | 34.5 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 17 Sept | 35.5 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 18 Sept | 33.1 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 Sept after | 32.0 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 21 Sept after | 30.9 °C | 34 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Sept after | 33.0 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Sept after | 34.0 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Sept after | 33.9 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Sept after | 32.8 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Sept after | 33.1 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Sept after | 36.3 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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 18 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 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 · 567Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 29,588 haMpika7 September 2020 · 21 days · 18 km away
- 31,521 haMpika3 October 2017 · 9 days · 20 km away
- 37,949 haMpika2 October 2016 · 24 days · 23 km away
- 22,352 haMpika18 September 2020 · 12 days · 30 km away
- 18,056 haMpika18 September 2020 · 19 days · 30 km away
- 20,880 haMpika16 September 2025 · 22 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mpika fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2025 and 18 September 2025: 23 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 17,944 hectares (179.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mpika (18,039 ha, 1.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 35 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.