Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Mpika fire, 24 August 2026 Mpika

Out · last detection 28 Aug 2026, 23:29 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2026 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,259 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 302th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 513 with a page). Number 302 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.

Burnt area
4,259ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
24 Aug 2026 – 28 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
24 Aug
2026
Heat detections
86
in a single hotspot: 40 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
609MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug28 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2425262728

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
30km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 37 ha in 2017, 2,136 ha in 2018, 1,997 ha in 2019, 1,009 ha in 2020, 1,549 ha in 2021, 1,049 ha in 2022, 1,503 ha in 2023, 698 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,129 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpika where it started
    4,296 ha reached on 24 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
24 Aug 33.2 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Aug 31.4 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Aug 33.0 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Aug 31.6 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Aug 30.3 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Aug after 31.2 °C 33 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Aug after 32.5 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Aug after 33.2 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Sept after 33.8 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Sept after 32.6 °C 30 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Sept after 32.9 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Sept after 33.2 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Sept after 34.1 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Sept after 33.7 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
7 Sept after 33.3 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Aug 2026
After · 4 Sept 2026

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 · Copernicus

On 26 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 55 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 2.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak55 µg/m³
Days over the guideline8 days
PM1057 µg/m³
Optical depth0.96
22232425262728293031
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 86Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 August 2026 to 28 August 2026 (5 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 August 2026 to 27 August 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,259 hectares (42.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mpika (4,296 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.