Mpulungu fire, 30 August 2026 Mpulungu
The fire started on 30 August 2026 in Mpulungu, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,643 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 449th largest in Northern since 2016 (of 628 with a page). Number 406 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.
- Burnt area
- 3,643ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 30 Aug 2026 – 10 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 30 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 122
- in a single hotspot: 111 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.9GW
- 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
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 42 ha in 2016, 2,230 ha in 2017, 431 ha in 2018, 1,695 ha in 2019, 1,810 ha in 2020, 1,343 ha in 2021, 57 ha in 2022, 211 ha in 2023, 744 ha in 2024, 2,275 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,285 ha that had burned before.
- 2,275 ha Mpulungu fire, August 2025 17,434 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,230 ha Mpulungu fire, September 2017 15,945 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,695 ha Mpulungu fire, August 2019 13,531 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,313 ha Mpulungu fire, August 2021 6,937 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 539 ha Mpulungu fire, September 2020 9,439 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 211 ha Mpulungu fire, September 2023 5,385 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mpulungu where it started3,666 ha reached on 30 Aug0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Aug | 29.8 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Aug | 30.3 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Sept | 29.9 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Sept | 31.0 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 3 Sept | 31.7 °C | 19 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Sept | 31.8 °C | 24 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Sept | 32.1 °C | 25 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Sept | 31.2 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 7 Sept | 31.4 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 8 Sept | 29.2 °C | 29 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Sept | 28.3 °C | 30 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 10 Sept | 28.8 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Sept after | 29.9 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 13 Sept after | 31.1 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Sept after | 31.2 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Sept after | 30.3 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 38 |
| 16 Sept after | 30.5 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 17 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 18 Sept after | 31.6 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 19 Sept after | 31.1 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 20 % | 33 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 5 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 198 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 105: 7.0 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 · 122Every 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?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 August 2026 to 10 September 2026 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 August 2026 to 9 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,643 hectares (36.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mpulungu (3,666 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.1 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.