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ZM · Zambia · –

Mwense fire, July 2026 Chipili, Mansa, Lupososhi

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2026, 11:38 UTC

The fire started on 24 July 2026 in Mwense, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 65 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 606,417 hectares from heat detections, spread across 7 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

The largest in Zambia in 2026, of 623.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in August 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Mansa · 2025Chipili · 2021Mansa · 2020Mansa · 2017

Burnt area
606,417ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
65days
24 Jul 2026 – 26 Sept 2026
Municipalities hit
7
districts
Started on
24 Jul
2026
Heat detections
18,580
in a single hotspot: 294 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Average daily power
2.8GW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jul26 Sept
26 Sept 2026

How it evolved, day by day

24 Jul 2026 · 26 MW · 8 25 Jul 2026 · 211 MW · 22 26 Jul 2026 · 52 MW · 14 27 Jul 2026 · 62 MW · 7 28 Jul 2026 · 88 MW · 14 29 Jul 2026 · 57 MW · 12 30 Jul 2026 · 718 MW · 62 31 Jul 2026 · 363 MW · 58 1 Aug 2026 · 698 MW · 131 2 Aug 2026 · 470 MW · 61 3 Aug 2026 · 491 MW · 57 4 Aug 2026 · 301 MW · 40 5 Aug 2026 · 447 MW · 55 6 Aug 2026 · 851 MW · 101 7 Aug 2026 · 788 MW · 95 8 Aug 2026 · 2,197 MW · 227 9 Aug 2026 · 871 MW · 125 10 Aug 2026 · 1,778 MW · 143 11 Aug 2026 · 3,507 MW · 311 12 Aug 2026 · 3,758 MW · 523 13 Aug 2026 · 1,496 MW · 158 14 Aug 2026 · 1,186 MW · 144 15 Aug 2026 · 2,687 MW · 244 16 Aug 2026 · 1,838 MW · 230 17 Aug 2026 · 2,066 MW · 313 18 Aug 2026 · 59 MW · 41 19 Aug 2026 · 7,525 MW · 831 20 Aug 2026 · 9,753 MW · 729 21 Aug 2026 · 9,719 MW · 630 22 Aug 2026 · 9,611 MW · 706 23 Aug 2026 · 3,289 MW · 267 24 Aug 2026 · 10,787 MW · 1134 25 Aug 2026 · 4,232 MW · 579 26 Aug 2026 · 3,133 MW · 296 27 Aug 2026 · 4,062 MW · 393 28 Aug 2026 · 2,827 MW · 474 29 Aug 2026 · 1,772 MW · 214 30 Aug 2026 · 4,033 MW · 479 31 Aug 2026 · 7,095 MW · 665 1 Sept 2026 · 7,463 MW · 759 2 Sept 2026 · 5,560 MW · 607 3 Sept 2026 · 8,205 MW · 876 4 Sept 2026 · 4,818 MW · 528 5 Sept 2026 · 1,682 MW · 165 6 Sept 2026 · 1,370 MW · 142 7 Sept 2026 · 8,334 MW · 765 8 Sept 2026 · 8,672 MW · 745 9 Sept 2026 · 5,476 MW · 584 10 Sept 2026 · 3,268 MW · 441 11 Sept 2026 · 1,967 MW · 210 12 Sept 2026 · 3,870 MW · 314 13 Sept 2026 · 1,177 MW · 229 14 Sept 2026 · 3,739 MW · 394 15 Sept 2026 · 2,212 MW · 261 16 Sept 2026 · 2,515 MW · 292 17 Sept 2026 · 591 MW · 104 18 Sept 2026 · 833 MW · 130 19 Sept 2026 · 1,267 MW · 139 20 Sept 2026 · 1,029 MW · 127 21 Sept 2026 · 194 MW · 11 22 Sept 2026 · 230 MW · 62 23 Sept 2026 · 451 MW · 55 24 Sept 2026 · 362 MW · 38 25 Sept 2026 · 26 MW · 6 26 Sept 2026 · 25 MW · 3
24 Jul 6 Aug 24 Aug 14 Sept

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

Fire front film How it spread from one satellite pass to the next (134 passes) and with what wind. Watch the film

The weather it burned in

35°high
39km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.2 mm on 28 Sept.

This area had burned before

100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 330,416 ha in 2016, 353,038 ha in 2017, 239,933 ha in 2018, 335,166 ha in 2019, 305,605 ha in 2020, 341,331 ha in 2021, 294,785 ha in 2022, 263,728 ha in 2023, 322,114 ha in 2024, 379,495 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 604,110 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

20 km
It burned the equivalent of 3.8 times the area of London (6,064 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Chipili
    229,118 ha
    53 %
  2. Mansa
    210,003 ha
    27 %
  3. Lupososhi
    84,802 ha
    20 %
  4. Kawambwa
    50,611 ha
    6.3 %
  5. Mwense where it started
    24,652 ha
    10 %
  6. Chifunabuli
    11,218 ha
    3.6 %
  7. Mwansabombwe
    8,133 ha
    6.9 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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)

Started with 60 days without rain: 91 % of the area in Zambia

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
24 Jul 28.9 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Jul 29.1 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Jul 28.3 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Jul 27.3 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Jul 28.5 °C 32 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Jul 29.6 °C 33 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
30 Jul 28.6 °C 34 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Jul 28.7 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Aug 26.8 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Aug 26.8 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Aug 26.9 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Aug 27.6 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Aug 28.2 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Aug 28.7 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Aug 29.5 °C 37 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
8 Aug 30.0 °C 37 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Aug 29.9 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
10 Aug 31.8 °C 28 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Aug 31.7 °C 29 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
12 Aug 31.9 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Aug 29.5 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Aug 26.9 °C 42 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
15 Aug 27.5 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Aug 27.7 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Aug 28.6 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Aug 29.2 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Aug 29.1 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
20 Aug 29.1 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Aug 29.6 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug 30.6 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Aug 31.0 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Aug 31.2 °C 32 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Aug 30.5 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Aug 31.8 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Aug 31.8 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Aug 30.2 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Aug 30.5 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Aug 31.4 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Aug 32.3 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Sept 31.9 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Sept 32.5 °C 28 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Sept 32.7 °C 28 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Sept 32.8 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Sept 31.1 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Sept 31.9 °C 35 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Sept 33.1 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Sept 31.3 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
9 Sept 30.4 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Sept 30.8 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Sept 32.5 °C 28 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Sept 32.9 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Sept 33.3 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Sept 33.6 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Sept 33.8 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Sept 33.7 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Sept 32.7 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Sept 33.2 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Sept 33.2 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Sept 35.0 °C 24 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Sept 32.0 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Sept 34.2 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
23 Sept 33.9 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
24 Sept 33.4 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Sept 33.3 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Sept 34.0 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Sept after 33.9 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.6 mm Very high 39
28 Sept after 33.1 °C 40 % 28 km/h 3.2 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jul 2026
After · 3 Oct 2026

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 5 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 153 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 101: 6.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak153 µg/m³
Days over the guideline61 days
PM10157 µg/m³
Optical depth2.13
28 Jul10 Aug23 Aug5 Sept18 Sept
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 · 18,580Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Zambia

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mwense fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 24 July 2026 to 26 September 2026 (65 days). The perimeter dates it from 31 July 2026 to 19 September 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 606,417 hectares (6,064.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 7 municipalities: Chipili (229,118 ha, 53 %); Mansa (210,003 ha, 27 %); Lupososhi (84,802 ha, 20 %); Kawambwa (50,611 ha, 6.3 %); Mwense (24,652 ha, 10 %); Chifunabuli (11,218 ha, 3.6 %); Mwansabombwe (8,133 ha, 6.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 39 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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Name: Chipili → Mwense.
  2. Start date: 30 July 2026 → 24 July 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 29 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 31 July 2026 to 19 September 2026. 18,580 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.