Mwandi fire, September 2026 Mwandi
The fire started on 17 September 2026 in Mwandi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,565 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 95th largest in Western since 2016 (of 162 with a page). Number 422 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.
The power measured by the satellite is low (25.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,565ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 17 Sept 2026 – 20 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 17 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 91
- in a single hotspot: 26 MW
- Danger at start
- 60
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 601MW
- 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 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 21 Sept.
This area had burned before
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,589 ha in 2017, 1,786 ha in 2018, 1,890 ha in 2021, 2,150 ha in 2022, 1,182 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,180 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mwandi where it started3,591 ha reached on 17 Sept0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Sept | 35.5 °C | 12 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 18 Sept | 35.4 °C | 13 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 19 Sept | 34.7 °C | 19 % | 59 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 20 Sept | 29.4 °C | 32 % | 43 km/h | 1.6 mm | High 27 |
| 21 Sept after | 27.9 °C | 41 % | 43 km/h | 2.8 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 60 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 34: 2.3 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 · 91Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,776 haKazungula21 August 2026 · 9 days · 9 km away
- 7,087 haKazungula2 August 2026 · 8 days · 20 km away
- 3,499 haKazungula12 August 2025 · 3 days · 20 km away
- 6,726 haKazungulaSeptember 2026 · 6 days · 25 km away
- 4,095 haKazungula6 August 2022 · 3 days · 25 km away
- 3,367 haKazungula20 September 2025 · 5 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mwandi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2026 and 20 September 2026: 4 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 3,565 hectares (35.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mwandi (3,591 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 59 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 71, class Very 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.