Mpika fire, 7 September 2026 Mpika
The fire started on 7 September 2026 in Mpika, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,495 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 405th largest in Muchinga since 2016 (of 516 with a page). Number 448 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.
The power measured by the satellite is low (22.4 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
- 3,495ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 7 Sept 2026 – 20 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 44
- in a single hotspot: 22 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 368MW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 1.3 mm on 22 Sept.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 378 ha in 2016, 789 ha in 2017, 1,285 ha in 2018, 1,628 ha in 2019, 349 ha in 2020, 542 ha in 2021, 2,145 ha in 2022, 315 ha in 2023, 2,038 ha in 2024, 1,771 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,347 ha that had burned before.
- 1,816 ha Mpika fire, September 2024 3,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,709 ha Mpika fire, September 2025 13,007 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,624 ha Mpika fire, September 2019 3,519 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 813 ha Mpika fire, September 2018 3,547 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 342 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 started3,514 ha reached on 8 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Sept | 26.0 °C | 43 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Sept | 24.2 °C | 40 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Sept | 21.9 °C | 51 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 10 Sept | 24.7 °C | 43 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Sept | 26.7 °C | 40 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 12 Sept | 27.6 °C | 34 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 13 Sept | 27.3 °C | 35 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 14 Sept | 27.6 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 15 Sept | 27.8 °C | 34 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Sept | 27.2 °C | 29 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 17 Sept | 26.9 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Sept | 27.1 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Sept | 27.3 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Sept | 27.6 °C | 40 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Sept after | 27.3 °C | 42 % | 38 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 30 |
| 22 Sept after | 20.8 °C | 65 % | 42 km/h | 1.3 mm | Moderate 11 |
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 17 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 51 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 · 44Every 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 7 September 2026 and 20 September 2026: 14 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 3,495 hectares (35.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mpika (3,514 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.8 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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
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.