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Mwinilunga fire, 8 September 2021 Mwinilunga, Kalumbila

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2021, 11:26 UTC

The fire started on 8 September 2021 in Mwinilunga, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,845 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 158th largest in North-Western since 2016 (of 286 with a page). Number 140 in Zambia in 2021, of 213.

Burnt area
3,845ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
8 Sept 2021 – 11 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Sept
2021
Heat detections
96
in a single hotspot: 121 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
915MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Sept11 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

101112

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
53km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 364 ha in 2016, 1,868 ha in 2017, 443 ha in 2018, 1,399 ha in 2019, 658 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,900 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mwinilunga where it started
    3,319 ha reached on 10 Sept
    0.2 %
  2. Kalumbila
    562 ha reached on 10 Sept
    0.0 %

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)
8 Sept 33.7 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Sept 33.7 °C 17 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Sept 30.8 °C 22 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Sept 28.3 °C 24 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept after 29.7 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Sept after 31.9 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Sept after 32.9 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Sept after 34.1 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Sept after 33.8 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Sept after 35.4 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Sept after 35.3 °C 15 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
19 Sept after 33.2 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept after 34.0 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Sept after 35.0 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Sept 2021
After · 18 Sept 2021

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 · 96Every 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 Mwinilunga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 September 2021 and 11 September 2021: 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 3,845 hectares (38.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mwinilunga (3,319 ha, 0.2 %); Kalumbila (562 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class 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.

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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.