Mwinilunga fire, September 2026 Mwinilunga, Mufumbwe
The fire started on 16 September 2026 in Mwinilunga, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,718 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 176th largest in North-Western since 2016 (of 286 with a page). Number 394 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.
- Burnt area
- 3,718ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 16 Sept 2026 – 20 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Sept
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 39
- in a single hotspot: 91 MW
- Danger at start
- 53
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 570MW
- 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 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 21 Sept.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 142 ha in 2018, 145 ha in 2020, 410 ha in 2021, 1,313 ha in 2024, 1,535 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,189 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Mwinilunga where it started3,620 ha0.2 %
-
132 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Sept | 35.2 °C | 8 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 17 Sept | 34.9 °C | 4 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 18 Sept | 34.6 °C | 10 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 19 Sept | 34.9 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 20 Sept | 31.4 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 21 Sept after | 28.4 °C | 46 % | 31 km/h | 2.3 mm | Low 10 |
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 107 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 68: 4.5 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 · 39Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,858 haKalumbila20 September 2025 · 7 days · 9 km away
- 10,509 haMwinilunga17 September 2025 · 6 days · 10 km away
- 15,477 haMwinilunga17 August 2024 · 5 days · 15 km away
- 19,476 haKalumbilaSeptember 2017 · 14 days · 18 km away
- 5,568 haKalumbila13 September 2018 · 13 days · 19 km away
- 5,448 haMufumbwe28 June 2026 · 13 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mwinilunga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 September 2026 and 20 September 2026: 5 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 3,718 hectares (37.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mwinilunga (3,620 ha, 0.2 %); Mufumbwe (132 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.
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.