Mpongwe fire, 18 July 2026 Mpongwe
The fire started on 18 July 2026 in Mpongwe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,638 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 47th largest in Copperbelt since 2016 (of 84 with a page). Number 410 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.
- Burnt area
- 3,638ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 18 Jul 2026 – 1 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 64
- in a single hotspot: 35 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 512MW
- 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
41% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 102 ha in 2016, 531 ha in 2019, 1,052 ha in 2020, 112 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,507 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mpongwe where it started3,658 ha reached on 18 Jul0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jul | 25.8 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Jul | 26.2 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Jul | 26.8 °C | 19 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Jul | 28.2 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 22 Jul | 28.0 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Jul | 27.6 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Jul | 27.1 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Jul | 25.3 °C | 35 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Jul | 24.0 °C | 38 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 27 Jul | 25.1 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 28 Jul | 26.7 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Jul | 27.6 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Jul | 27.6 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 31 Jul | 26.5 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Aug | 25.1 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 2 Aug after | 24.3 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 3 Aug after | 25.7 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Aug after | 26.7 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Aug after | 26.6 °C | 26 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Aug after | 27.0 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 8 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 10 Aug after | 29.2 °C | 32 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Aug after | 28.8 °C | 31 % | 30 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.
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 20 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 72 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 45: 3.0 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 · 64Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,659 haLufwanyama18 July 2026 · 10 days · 17 km away
- 4,099 haLufwanyama24 July 2016 · 12 days · 24 km away
- 4,031 haMpongwe25 July 2026 · 15 days · 25 km away
- 5,269 haMpongweAugust 2019 · 6 days · 30 km away
- 4,948 haLufwanyamaAugust 2016 · 5 days · 33 km away
- 5,197 haLufwanyama15 August 2026 · 9 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mpongwe fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2026 and 1 August 2026: 15 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 3,638 hectares (36.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mpongwe (3,658 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.2 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.