Mpulungu fire, 20 August 2025 Mpulungu
The fire started on 20 August 2025 in Mpulungu, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,434 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 30th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 23 in Zambia in 2025, of 271.
- Burnt area
- 17,434ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 20 Aug 2025 – 8 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 20 Aug
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 749
- in a single hotspot: 127 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 6.9GW
- 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
77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,146 ha in 2016, 7,626 ha in 2017, 2,665 ha in 2018, 8,030 ha in 2019, 8,039 ha in 2020, 5,624 ha in 2021, 2,868 ha in 2022, 2,800 ha in 2023, 3,450 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,451 ha that had burned before.
- 8,030 ha Mpulungu fire, August 2019 13,531 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,626 ha Mpulungu fire, September 2017 15,945 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,988 ha Mpulungu fire, September 2020 9,439 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,804 ha Mpulungu fire, August 2021 6,937 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,324 ha Mpulungu fire, September 2023 5,385 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,090 ha Mpulungu fire, September 2018 4,971 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 836 ha Mpulungu fire, September 2016 3,090 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mpulungu where it started17,546 ha reached on 13 Aug1.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Aug | 27.5 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Aug | 28.0 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Aug | 28.6 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Aug | 27.6 °C | 20 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 24 Aug | 28.4 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Aug | 30.2 °C | 25 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Aug | 32.1 °C | 13 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Aug | 28.7 °C | 22 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Aug | 30.4 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Aug | 30.6 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 30 Aug | 29.3 °C | 18 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 31 Aug | 28.7 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 1 Sept | 29.6 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 2 Sept | 29.2 °C | 18 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 3 Sept | 29.3 °C | 20 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 4 Sept | 29.9 °C | 16 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Sept | 30.2 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Sept | 31.3 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 7 Sept | 31.2 °C | 16 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 8 Sept | 30.3 °C | 20 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 10 Sept after | 31.3 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 11 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 12 Sept after | 31.1 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 13 Sept after | 31.1 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 22 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 15 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 17 Sept after | 31.6 °C | 21 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Sept after | 32.0 °C | 17 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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 25 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 103 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 71: 4.7 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 · 749Every 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 Mpulungu fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 August 2025 and 8 September 2025: 20 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 17,434 hectares (174.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mpulungu (17,546 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.
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.