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Ngabwe fire, 25 July 2026 Ngabwe, Mpongwe

Out · last detection 2 Aug 2026, 12:08 UTC

The fire started on 25 July 2026 in Ngabwe, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,152 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 370th largest in Central since 2016 (of 401 with a page). Number 554 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.

The power measured by the satellite is low (19.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,152ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
25 Jul 2026 – 5 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
25 Jul
2026
Heat detections
77
in a single hotspot: 20 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
214MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jul5 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

262728293012

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
46km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 85 ha in 2017, 1,050 ha in 2018, 736 ha in 2019, 930 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,325 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Ngabwe where it started
    1,852 ha reached on 18 Jul
    0.3 %
  2. Mpongwe
    1,319 ha reached on 18 Jul
    0.2 %

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)
25 Jul 25.0 °C 35 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Jul 23.6 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Jul 25.2 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
28 Jul 26.8 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Jul 27.8 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Jul 27.6 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Jul 26.5 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Aug 25.2 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Aug 24.5 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Aug 25.8 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Aug 26.8 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Aug 26.7 °C 25 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Aug after 27.1 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Aug after 28.0 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Aug after 27.2 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Aug after 28.7 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Aug after 29.5 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 Aug after 28.9 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Aug after 28.1 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Aug after 24.0 °C 44 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Aug after 20.6 °C 51 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
15 Aug after 25.1 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jul 2026
After · 12 Aug 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 7 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 43 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak43 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM1047 µg/m³
Optical depth0.58
23242526272829303112345678
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 · 77Every 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 Ngabwe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 July 2026 and 5 August 2026: 12 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 3,152 hectares (31.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ngabwe (1,852 ha, 0.3 %); Mpongwe (1,319 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.8 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.

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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.