Mzimba fire, 4 November 2020 Mzimba, Nkhata Bay
The fire started on 4 November 2020 in Mzimba, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,805 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 144th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 418 with a page). Number 29 in Malawi in 2020, of 87.
- Burnt area
- 1,805ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 4 Nov 2020 – 9 Nov 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 4 Nov
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 128
- in a single hotspot: 89 MW
- Energy released
- 2.1GW
- 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.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,026 ha in 2016, 1,082 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,635 ha that had burned before.
- 1,318 ha Mzimba fire, October 2016 6,937 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,082 ha Mzimba fire, September 2018 1,302 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 708 ha Mzimba fire, November 2016 1,233 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mzimba where it started1,718 ha reached on 4 Nov0.2 %
-
99 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.
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 · 128Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 64,817 haNkhata Bay9 October 2023 · 23 days · 20 km away
- 19,756 haNkhotakota 5 October 2026 · 19 days · 21 km away
- 14,277 haNkhata Bay18 October 2022 · 24 days · 27 km away
- 123,561 haNkhata Bay16 October 2025 · 23 days · 30 km away
- 63,964 haNkhata Bay19 October 2024 · 14 days · 30 km away
- 20,590 haNkhata Bay18 October 2020 · 13 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mzimba fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 November 2020 and 9 November 2020: 6 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 1,805 hectares (18.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mzimba (1,718 ha, 0.2 %); Nkhata Bay (99 ha, 0.0 %).
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Malawi (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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.