Mwense fire, September 2020 Mwense
The fire started on 7 September 2020 in Mwense, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,607 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 405th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 167 in Zambia in 2020, of 229.
- Burnt area
- 3,607ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 7 Sept 2020 – 15 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 132
- in a single hotspot: 31 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 992MW
- 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
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 968 ha in 2016, 2,449 ha in 2017, 9 ha in 2018, 1,640 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,177 ha that had burned before.
- 2,328 ha Mwense fire, August 2017 3,727 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,411 ha Chipili fire, August 2019 23,101 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 968 ha Mwense fire, July 2016 3,758 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 211 ha Mwense fire, August 2019 3,611 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mwense where it started3,627 ha reached on 6 Sept1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Sept | 28.4 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Sept | 29.2 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Sept | 28.3 °C | 19 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 10 Sept | 28.2 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Sept | 29.4 °C | 22 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Sept | 29.4 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 13 Sept | 29.5 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Sept | 31.3 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 15 Sept | 31.3 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 16 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Sept after | 33.3 °C | 20 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 18 Sept after | 32.7 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Sept after | 32.1 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Sept after | 32.5 °C | 22 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 21 Sept after | 33.0 °C | 20 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Sept after | 32.8 °C | 17 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 23 Sept after | 30.9 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
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.
Detections table · 132Every 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 Mwense fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 September 2020 and 15 September 2020: 9 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 3,607 hectares (36.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mwense (3,627 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 44 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.