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Mpongwe fire, September 2023 Mpongwe, Kasempa

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2023, 11:58 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2023 in Mpongwe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,304 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 67th largest in Copperbelt since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 139 in Zambia in 2023, of 165.

Burnt area
3,304ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
8 Sept 2023 – 10 Sept 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Sept
2023
Heat detections
98
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
54
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Sept 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

891011

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
50km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

62% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9 ha in 2020, 273 ha in 2021, 1,793 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpongwe where it started
    2,348 ha reached on 8 Sept
    0.3 %
  2. Kasempa
    977 ha reached on 7 Sept
    0.0 %

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)
8 Sept 32.2 °C 16 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
9 Sept 30.7 °C 19 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Sept 30.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Sept after 32.6 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Sept after 33.5 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Sept after 29.0 °C 27 % 62 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Sept after 29.4 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Sept after 30.4 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Sept after 32.5 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Sept after 33.2 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
18 Sept after 33.6 °C 13 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Sept after 32.3 °C 17 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept after 32.4 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2023
After · 17 Sept 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 98Every 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 Mpongwe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 September 2023 and 10 September 2023: 3 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 3,304 hectares (33.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpongwe (2,348 ha, 0.3 %); Kasempa (977 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
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.

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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.