How long did the Mpulungu fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2026 and 22 August 2026: 8 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 3,829 hectares (38.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpulungu (2,353 ha, 0.2 %); Nsama (1,498 ha, 0.2 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 35 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 · 2026-08-15 → 2026-08-22

Mpulungu fire, 15 August 2026 Mpulungu, Nsama

Out · last detection 22 Aug 2026, 10:53 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2026 in Mpulungu, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,829 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 408th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 370 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.

Burnt area: 3,829ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 8days; 15 Aug 2026 – 22 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 15 Aug; 2026
Heat detections: 74; in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start: 39; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 439MW; sum of detected power

Play back 22 Aug 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug22 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

161718192022

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

35km/h · peak gust

19%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

64% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 633 ha in 2017, 925 ha in 2019, 1,271 ha in 2021, 1,285 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,462 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Mpulungu where it started

2,353 ha reached on 16 Aug

0.2 %
Nsama

1,498 ha reached on 17 Aug

0.2 %

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	Danger (FWI)
15 Aug	28.9 °C	30 %	35 km/h	Very high 39
16 Aug	29.4 °C	28 %	34 km/h	High 37
17 Aug	30.5 °C	25 %	30 km/h	High 35
18 Aug	31.0 °C	22 %	28 km/h	High 37
19 Aug	30.9 °C	19 %	35 km/h	Very high 41
20 Aug	30.7 °C	23 %	29 km/h	Very high 39
21 Aug	30.7 °C	25 %	29 km/h	Very high 38
22 Aug	31.6 °C	24 %	27 km/h	High 38
23 Aug after	31.2 °C	28 %	29 km/h	High 38
24 Aug after	32.1 °C	28 %	33 km/h	Very high 40
25 Aug after	32.1 °C	29 %	32 km/h	Very high 39
26 Aug after	33.3 °C	25 %	35 km/h	Very high 41
27 Aug after	33.1 °C	27 %	37 km/h	Very high 43
28 Aug after	31.8 °C	27 %	39 km/h	Very high 44
29 Aug after	31.6 °C	25 %	36 km/h	Very high 45
30 Aug after	32.1 °C	23 %	36 km/h	Very high 42
31 Aug after	32.6 °C	23 %	38 km/h	Very high 44
1 Sept after	32.6 °C	25 %	34 km/h	Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 8 Aug 2026

After · 29 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 21 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 102 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 55: 3.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak102 µg/m³

Days over the guideline13 days

PM10106 µg/m³

Optical depth1.09

WHO 15

13141516171819202122232425

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 · 74Every 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 Mpulungu fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2026 and 22 August 2026: 8 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 3,829 hectares (38.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mpulungu (2,353 ha, 0.2 %); Nsama (1,498 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 35 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.

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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.

Where it burned