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Nkhata Bay fire, 5 October 2022 Nkhata Bay, Mzimba

Out · last detection 18 Nov 2022, 11:26 UTC

The fire started on 5 October 2022 in Nkhata Bay, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 45 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 28,618 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:

It is the 8th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 427 with a page). The largest in Malawi in 2022, of 57.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Nkhata Bay · 2016Nkhata Bay · 2019Nkhata Bay · 2020Nkhata Bay · 2017

Burnt area
28,618ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
45days
5 Oct 2022 – 18 Nov 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
5 Oct
2022
Heat detections
2,070
in a single hotspot: 245 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
683MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Oct18 Nov
18 Nov 2022

How it evolved, day by day

5 Oct 2022 · 263 MW · 26 6 Oct 2022 · 107 MW · 10 7 Oct 2022 · 78 MW · 10 8 Oct 2022 · 36 MW · 6 9 Oct 2022 · 10 MW · 4 11 Oct 2022 · 16 MW · 4 12 Oct 2022 · 75 MW · 19 13 Oct 2022 · 441 MW · 27 14 Oct 2022 · 143 MW · 21 15 Oct 2022 · 2,088 MW · 107 16 Oct 2022 · 900 MW · 83 17 Oct 2022 · 629 MW · 54 18 Oct 2022 · 913 MW · 84 19 Oct 2022 · 2,198 MW · 89 20 Oct 2022 · 1,387 MW · 59 21 Oct 2022 · 1,406 MW · 140 22 Oct 2022 · 1,641 MW · 105 23 Oct 2022 · 1,489 MW · 77 24 Oct 2022 · 2,250 MW · 81 25 Oct 2022 · 1,876 MW · 82 26 Oct 2022 · 1,046 MW · 95 27 Oct 2022 · 479 MW · 56 28 Oct 2022 · 1,043 MW · 89 29 Oct 2022 · 1,571 MW · 88 30 Oct 2022 · 660 MW · 34 31 Oct 2022 · 908 MW · 54 1 Nov 2022 · 960 MW · 79 2 Nov 2022 · 1,047 MW · 72 3 Nov 2022 · 939 MW · 71 4 Nov 2022 · 516 MW · 52 5 Nov 2022 · 440 MW · 44 6 Nov 2022 · 561 MW · 56 7 Nov 2022 · 703 MW · 64 8 Nov 2022 · 148 MW · 11 9 Nov 2022 · 584 MW · 50 10 Nov 2022 · 147 MW · 20 11 Nov 2022 · 12 MW · 2 12 Nov 2022 · 7 MW · 1 13 Nov 2022 · 106 MW · 10 14 Nov 2022 · 107 MW · 8 15 Nov 2022 · 53 MW · 15 16 Nov 2022 · 53 MW · 7 17 Nov 2022 · 22 MW · 3 18 Nov 2022 · 3 MW · 1
5 Oct 13 Oct 20 Oct 24 Oct 27 Oct 3 Nov 10 Nov 17 Nov

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
64km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.0 mm on 23 Nov.

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 20,002 ha in 2016, 8,246 ha in 2017, 7,898 ha in 2018, 8,021 ha in 2019, 16,280 ha in 2020, 5,372 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 25,771 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 18% of the area of London (286 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Nkhata Bay where it started
    27,995 ha reached on 5 Oct
    6.7 %
  2. Mzimba
    819 ha reached on 6 Oct
    0.1 %

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 2020
Built-up area26 ha
Residents≈ 4,000

Inside the perimeter there were about 26 hectares of built-up land and about 4,000 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)
5 Oct 25.9 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Oct 25.0 °C 25 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Oct 24.2 °C 32 % 63 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Oct 24.3 °C 33 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Oct 23.1 °C 31 % 58 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Oct 24.8 °C 35 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Oct 23.7 °C 30 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Oct 23.4 °C 30 % 64 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Oct 25.1 °C 27 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Oct 25.1 °C 20 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Oct 25.5 °C 28 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Oct 24.8 °C 31 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Oct 24.8 °C 29 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Oct 25.2 °C 32 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Oct 25.7 °C 35 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Oct 24.9 °C 35 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Oct 25.4 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Oct 25.5 °C 36 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Oct 25.7 °C 39 % 46 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
24 Oct 26.6 °C 37 % 42 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 21
25 Oct 27.9 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.9 mm Moderate 21
26 Oct 28.4 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
27 Oct 27.4 °C 30 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Oct 27.8 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Oct 27.8 °C 32 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Oct 25.8 °C 38 % 50 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
31 Oct 28.5 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Nov 28.1 °C 37 % 56 km/h 1.1 mm High 28
2 Nov 26.6 °C 33 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Nov 27.6 °C 29 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Nov 27.3 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
5 Nov 26.1 °C 37 % 45 km/h 0.5 mm High 35
6 Nov 26.9 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
7 Nov 28.6 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Nov 26.6 °C 35 % 44 km/h 1.3 mm High 23
9 Nov 27.2 °C 36 % 45 km/h 0.7 mm High 28
10 Nov 25.7 °C 47 % 42 km/h 3.5 mm Low 8
11 Nov 22.4 °C 57 % 36 km/h 12.4 mm Very low 1
12 Nov 24.9 °C 46 % 45 km/h 3.2 mm Very low 4
13 Nov 24.4 °C 46 % 35 km/h 6.6 mm Very low 2
14 Nov 26.9 °C 48 % 38 km/h 3.3 mm Very low 2
15 Nov 26.5 °C 44 % 47 km/h 0.2 mm Low 9
16 Nov 26.4 °C 45 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 13
17 Nov 27.1 °C 46 % 36 km/h 1.9 mm Low 5
18 Nov 26.7 °C 48 % 40 km/h 1.5 mm Low 6
19 Nov after 26.8 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 12
20 Nov after 27.4 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.5 mm Moderate 14
21 Nov after 27.7 °C 43 % 48 km/h 0.4 mm Moderate 17
22 Nov after 25.3 °C 57 % 45 km/h 0.8 mm Low 11
23 Nov after 24.3 °C 52 % 38 km/h 4.0 mm Very low 3

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Sept 2022
After · 25 Nov 2022

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 25 October 2022 the air beside the fire reached 332 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 171: 11 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak332 µg/m³
Days over the guideline31 days
PM10473 µg/m³
Optical depth2.39
9101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011121314
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 · 2,070Every 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 Malawi ›

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 5 October 2022 to 18 November 2022 (45 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 October 2022 to 11 November 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 28,618 hectares (286.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nkhata Bay (27,995 ha, 6.7 %); Mzimba (819 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 64 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
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.
  1. Last day with fire: 11 November 2022 → 18 November 2022.
  2. Start date: 11 October 2022 → 5 October 2022.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 6 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 11 October 2022 to 11 November 2022. 2,070 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.

How we build fire pages: methodology ›

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.