Nkhata Bay fire, 7 October 2019 Nkhata Bay
The fire started on 7 October 2019 in Nkhata Bay, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,115 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 14th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 427 with a page). The largest in Malawi in 2019, of 60.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 14,115ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 30days
- 7 Oct 2019 – 5 Nov 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 7 Oct
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 786
- in a single hotspot: 230 MW
- Danger at start
- 5
- Low · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 351MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 11,551 ha in 2016, 2,394 ha in 2017, 6,656 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 12,653 ha that had burned before.
- 11,551 ha Nkhata Bay fire, September 2016 69,845 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,394 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2017 4,872 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,297 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2018 6,778 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,255 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2018 2,430 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,221 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2018 1,701 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,100 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2018 3,976 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 926 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2018 1,231 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 857 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2018 1,936 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Nkhata Bay where it started14,213 ha reached on 7 Oct3.4 %
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.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2020Inside the perimeter there were about 23 hectares of built-up land and about 3,700 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 Oct | 25.7 °C | 54 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 5 |
| 8 Oct | 27.2 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.5 mm | Low 10 |
| 9 Oct | 26.6 °C | 52 % | 38 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 10 Oct | 25.9 °C | 58 % | 36 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 3 |
| 11 Oct | 26.0 °C | 52 % | 43 km/h | 2.8 mm | Very low 2 |
| 12 Oct | 24.2 °C | 67 % | 37 km/h | 8.3 mm | Very low 0 |
| 13 Oct | 24.4 °C | 60 % | 40 km/h | 2.2 mm | Very low 1 |
| 14 Oct | 25.8 °C | 55 % | 31 km/h | 0.7 mm | Very low 2 |
| 15 Oct | 25.5 °C | 56 % | 31 km/h | 0.8 mm | Very low 3 |
| 16 Oct | 23.3 °C | 56 % | 42 km/h | 3.7 mm | Very low 1 |
| 17 Oct | 23.8 °C | 53 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 3 |
| 18 Oct | 25.1 °C | 53 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very low 5 |
| 19 Oct | 25.6 °C | 59 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very low 5 |
| 20 Oct | 25.1 °C | 60 % | 32 km/h | 0.7 mm | Very low 5 |
| 21 Oct | 26.2 °C | 58 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 6 |
| 22 Oct | 27.8 °C | 49 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 8 |
| 23 Oct | 27.4 °C | 48 % | 38 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 9 |
| 24 Oct | 27.3 °C | 50 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 25 Oct | 27.1 °C | 50 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 26 Oct | 27.1 °C | 44 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 27 Oct | 27.4 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 28 Oct | 28.6 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 29 Oct | 29.0 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 30 Oct | 27.9 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 31 Oct | 27.8 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 18 |
| 1 Nov | 27.8 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 2 Nov | 25.2 °C | 56 % | 38 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 3 Nov | 27.0 °C | 50 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 4 Nov | 26.6 °C | 51 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 5 Nov | 24.9 °C | 55 % | 41 km/h | 0.9 mm | Low 9 |
| 6 Nov after | 25.9 °C | 52 % | 38 km/h | 0.7 mm | Low 11 |
| 7 Nov after | 27.9 °C | 48 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 8 Nov after | 28.2 °C | 51 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 9 Nov after | 27.8 °C | 48 % | 40 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 10 Nov after | 27.3 °C | 53 % | 42 km/h | 0.6 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 11 Nov after | 27.6 °C | 52 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 12 Nov after | 28.1 °C | 47 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 13 Nov after | 29.1 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 14 Nov after | 29.3 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 15 Nov after | 30.3 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
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 · 786Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 20,590 haNkhata Bay16 October 2020 · 22 days · 2 km away
- 123,561 haNkhata Bay9 October 2025 · 30 days · 3 km away
- 63,964 haNkhata Bay18 October 2024 · 16 days · 3 km away
- 236,903 haNkhata Bay 5 October 2026 · 28 days · 8 km away
- 64,817 haNkhata Bay2 October 2023 · 31 days · 18 km away
- 28,618 haNkhata Bay5 October 2022 · 45 days · 18 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Nkhata Bay fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 7 October 2019 to 5 November 2019 (30 days). The perimeter dates it from 14 October 2019 to 29 October 2019.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,115 hectares (141.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Nkhata Bay (14,213 ha, 3.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 20, class Moderate.
- 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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 29 October 2019 → 5 November 2019.
- Start date: 14 October 2019 → 7 October 2019.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 7 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 14 October 2019 to 29 October 2019. 786 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.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.