How long did the Mpika fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2026 and 24 August 2026: 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 3,160 hectares (31.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpika (2,216 ha, 0.1 %); Kanchibiya (966 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 27.7 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

ZM · Zambia · 2026-08-16 → 2026-08-24

Mpika fire, 16 August 2026 Mpika, Kanchibiya

Out · last detection 25 Aug 2026, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2026 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,160 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 475th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 516 with a page). Number 549 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.

Burnt area: 3,160ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 9days; 16 Aug 2026 – 24 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 16 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 86; in a single hotspot: 145 MW
Danger at start: 26; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.3GW; sum of detected power

Play back 25 Aug 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug24 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1617202125

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

The weather it burned in

28°high

58km/h · peak gust

28%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,490 ha in 2016, 1,359 ha in 2017, 1,182 ha in 2018, 2,221 ha in 2019, 1,012 ha in 2020, 597 ha in 2021, 831 ha in 2022, 896 ha in 2024, 1,420 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,023 ha that had burned before.

1,102 ha Mpika fire, August 2017 5,128 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Mpika where it started

2,216 ha reached on 9 Aug

0.1 %
Kanchibiya

966 ha reached on 16 Aug

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)
9 Aug	25.9 °C	40 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
10 Aug	27.6 °C	33 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
11 Aug	27.7 °C	30 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
12 Aug	25.4 °C	34 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
13 Aug	21.4 °C	56 %	58 km/h	0.1 mm	High 32
14 Aug	19.1 °C	62 %	56 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
15 Aug	21.6 °C	43 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
16 Aug	22.6 °C	37 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
17 Aug	23.2 °C	32 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
18 Aug	24.1 °C	28 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
19 Aug	23.6 °C	32 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
20 Aug	23.7 °C	36 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
21 Aug	24.7 °C	35 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
22 Aug	25.6 °C	38 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
23 Aug	26.0 °C	41 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
24 Aug	26.5 °C	38 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
25 Aug after	26.6 °C	40 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
26 Aug after	26.5 °C	41 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
27 Aug after	25.3 °C	45 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
28 Aug after	24.0 °C	45 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
29 Aug after	25.7 °C	40 %	50 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
30 Aug after	26.8 °C	34 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
31 Aug after	27.4 °C	35 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
1 Sept after	27.5 °C	35 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
2 Sept after	27.0 °C	37 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
3 Sept after	27.9 °C	35 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
4 Sept after	29.8 °C	30 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 9 Aug 2026

After · 31 Aug 2026

Before After

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 25 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 47 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 38: 2.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak47 µg/m³

Days over the guideline15 days

PM1050 µg/m³

Optical depth0.72

WHO 15

78910111213141516171819202122232425262728

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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mpika fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2026 and 24 August 2026: 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 3,160 hectares (31.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpika (2,216 ha, 0.1 %); Kanchibiya (966 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 27.7 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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.

Where it burned