Burned area
satellite only24,483ha
Union of 5 GWIS (Copernicus) perimeters: overlapping areas count once.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 6 Oct 2026 – 14 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
MW · Malawi · –
Nkhata Bay fire, 6 October 2026 Nkhata Bay, Mzimba
Dying down · last detection 14 Nov 2026, 22:46 UTC
The fire started on 6 October 2026 in Nkhata Bay, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 40 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,483 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
Number 3 in Malawi in 2026, of 112.
GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in August 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-11-05matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only40days
From 6 Oct 2026 to today: still being detected.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 14 Nov 2026, 22:46 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only6 Oct 2026
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 6 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only820
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 68 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP + NOAA-20)
- Date
- 6 Oct 2026 – 14 Nov 2026
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only1,212MW
Total radiative power on 23 October 2026; hotspots that day: 119.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 23 Oct 2026
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model33.4FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 2.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 6 Oct 2026, local noon
- Model
- ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model31.7°C · 22% RH
High of 31.7 °C and minimum humidity of 22% on 23 October 2026; gusts of 65 km/h on 10 November 2026.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 6 Oct 2026 – 14 Nov 2026
- Model
- ECMWF IFS 0,25° · Open-Meteo.com · provisional
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the forecast (provisional until ERA5 arrives)
-
logArea: 42,712 → 24,375 ha.
-
logArea: 44,584 → 42,712 ha.
-
logArea: 115,668 → 44,584 ha.
-
logArea: 66,211 → 115,668 ha.
-
logThe page “Nkhata Bay, 13 October 2026” has been merged into this one: it was the same fire.
-
logArea: 54,819 → 66,211 ha.
-
logArea: 42,430 → 54,819 ha.
-
logArea: 1,688 → 42,430 ha.
-
logStart date: 20 October 2026 → 6 October 2026.
-
logThe page “Nkhata Bay, 14 October 2026” has been merged into this one: it was the same fire.
-
logArea: 1,654 → 1,688 ha.
Area logged each night
Move the slider to see which area the page published each day.
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/nkhata-bay-2026-10-2?v=2026-11-05A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire nkhata-bay-2026-10-2.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-06 | 12 | 59 | 27.2 | 17.1 | 42 | 20.8 | 45.4 | 0 | 33.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-07 | 10 | 49 | 27.9 | 18 | 44 | 21 | 44.6 | 0.4 | 33.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-08 | 0 | 0 | 27.9 | 17.3 | 36 | 24.6 | 51.1 | 0 | 45.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-09 | 0 | 0 | 26.6 | 18.4 | 41 | 25.5 | 52.2 | 0 | 47.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-10 | 0 | 0 | 27.3 | 18.6 | 38 | 24.1 | 49 | 0 | 44.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-11 | 0 | 0 | 26.7 | 18.9 | 42 | 29 | 57.6 | 0.1 | 44.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-12 | 0 | 0 | 26.6 | 17.5 | 44 | 24.9 | 52.6 | 0.6 | 44.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-13 | 0 | 0 | 27.2 | 18.2 | 36 | 23.4 | 46.1 | 0 | 40.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-14 | 7 | 88 | 26.3 | 17.5 | 43 | 22.8 | 49 | 0.1 | 43.7 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-15 | 16 | 119 | 25.7 | 17.7 | 40 | 26.3 | 54.7 | 0.2 | 49.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-16 | 10 | 60 | 26.1 | 18 | 36 | 25.8 | 54 | 0.1 | 49.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-17 | 34 | 244 | 26.6 | 17.7 | 33 | 20.7 | 44.6 | 0 | 43 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-18 | 21 | 110 | 26.5 | 17.1 | 41 | 19.6 | 41.4 | 0.7 | 37.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-19 | 21 | 117 | 28.6 | 17.3 | 37 | 17.6 | 38.9 | 1.7 | 27.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-20 | 20 | 168 | 29.1 | 18 | 37 | 16.3 | 37.1 | 0.2 | 25.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-21 | 54 | 330 | 30.1 | 18.5 | 29 | 17.4 | 38.2 | 0 | 45.4 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-22 | 91 | 662 | 31.4 | 18.8 | 24 | 20.5 | 43.2 | 0 | 55.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2026-10-23 | 119 | 1,212 | 31.7 | 18.8 | 22 | 21.1 | 43.6 | 0 | 61 | extremo | 1 |
| 2026-10-24 | 56 | 582 | 28.9 | 19.4 | 35 | 24.6 | 54.7 | 0 | 61.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2026-10-25 | 25 | 116 | 27.1 | 19.1 | 41 | 24.9 | 52.9 | 0.1 | 54.2 | extremo | 1 |
| 2026-10-26 | 29 | 286 | 28 | 18.7 | 44 | 23.8 | 47.2 | 0.4 | 45.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-27 | 29 | 196 | 28.8 | 18.7 | 34 | 19.8 | 43.9 | 0 | 46.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-28 | 42 | 427 | 31 | 18.8 | 27 | 15.5 | 35.6 | 0 | 47.5 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-29 | 18 | 104 | 29.5 | 20.2 | 38 | 16.6 | 37.4 | 0.7 | 40.9 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-30 | 6 | 45 | 26.8 | 18.7 | 49 | 25.6 | 50.8 | 0.8 | 40.3 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-10-31 | 1 | 5 | 26.8 | 17.5 | 47 | 16.6 | 33.1 | 2.2 | 21.3 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-01 | 2 | 2 | 27.3 | 17.7 | 46 | 16.8 | 35.3 | 0.8 | 15.3 | moderado | 1 |
| 2026-11-02 | 34 | 199 | 28.5 | 18.4 | 46 | 16.5 | 34.9 | 1.1 | 25.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-03 | 32 | 193 | 29.3 | 19.5 | 43 | 17.3 | 38.5 | 0.7 | 29 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-04 | 52 | 290 | 28.9 | 19.5 | 48 | 16.3 | 35.3 | 0.6 | 31.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-05 | 24 | 143 | 28.4 | 19.6 | 39 | 20.3 | 42.8 | 0.7 | 42.8 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-06 | 14 | 110 | 29 | 19.2 | 35 | 19.6 | 42.5 | 0 | 45.2 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-07 | 7 | 32 | 30 | 19 | 34 | 14.8 | 30.6 | 0.2 | 30 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-08 | 1 | 1 | 29.8 | 18.9 | 32 | 15.6 | 35.6 | 0 | 40.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-09 | 18 | 169 | 29.1 | 20.2 | 35 | 22.9 | 49 | 0 | 54.6 | extremo | 1 |
| 2026-11-10 | 9 | 81 | 27.2 | 19.8 | 44 | 33.5 | 64.8 | 0.1 | 48.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-11 | 2 | 8 | 27.7 | 18.3 | 46 | 22.5 | 44.3 | 1.1 | 36.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2026-11-12 | 0 | 0 | 27.7 | 19.4 | 50 | 10.8 | 41.8 | 14.3 | 6.6 | bajo | 1 |
| 2026-11-13 | 0 | 0 | 26.9 | 17.9 | 53 | 10.7 | 24.5 | 1.2 | 1.7 | muy_bajo | 1 |
| 2026-11-14 | 4 | 14 | 27.3 | 17.2 | 48 | 8.7 | 19.4 | 1.5 | 5.8 | bajo | 1 |
| 2026-11-15 | 0 | 0 | 27.4 | 18.9 | 56 | 16.2 | 36.7 | 4.2 | 5.5 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ECMWF IFS · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
Is it still active?
No detections since 14 Nov 2026, 22:46 UTC. That usually means no flame is visible from space any more, although hotspots may remain. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
- Burnt area
- 24,483ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 40days
- 6 Oct 2026 – 14 Nov 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 820
- in a single hotspot: 68 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 194MW
- detected power per day, on average
The next 72 hours
The wind is blowing from the south-east and pushing to the north-west; no sharp shifts are expected until Wed 18, 23:00.
ECMWF IFS 0.25° at the centre of the fire · computed 15 Nov 2026, 22:23 UTC
Mon 16, 05:00, local time
First useful rain: 2.8 mm in 6 h
Chance of rain up to 72 % in those hours. It can slow the fire at the surface, but that does not mean it will go out.
Checked, no warning: no wind shifts of more than 60° nights recover humidity (peaks of 98 % or more)
Hour by hour, local time
Tap the strip to see each hour
Mean wind
Gusts
where it blows to
Relative humidity
Night (8 pm to 8 am)
Rain (mm) · chance in %
Where is it blowing? The next 48 h
geoBoundaries/GRID3, Office of the Surveyor General (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)); geoBoundaries/Mozambique INE (Instituto Nacional de Estatistica), OCHA ROSEA (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)); geoBoundaries/National Statistics Office of Malawi, OCHA ROSEA (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO))
At this hour
Places the fan reaches
Is it heading my way?
We compare your point with the fan for each hour. Your location never leaves your device.
or tap the mapThis is not an official warning. It is a global model forecast with cells of about 25 km, at the centre of the fire: it cannot see valley winds or the winds the fire itself creates. The fan shows where the wind blows, not where the fire will spread. If in doubt, follow what the authorities say.
Forecast: ECMWF IFS 0.25° (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), served by our own Open-Meteo instance; the chance of rain comes from the ECMWF ensemble. Variables: wind and gusts at 10 m, wind at 850 hPa, relative humidity and temperature at 2 m, rain. Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0).
Fire: GWIS / Copernicus (reconstructed from VIIRS) (CC BY 4.0); hotspots from the last 24 h: VIIRS from NASA FIRMS. Boundaries: geoBoundaries/GRID3, Office of the Surveyor General (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)); geoBoundaries/Mozambique INE (Instituto Nacional de Estatistica), OCHA ROSEA (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)); geoBoundaries/National Statistics Office of Malawi, OCHA ROSEA (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)).
How it is worked out: wind shift = a change of more than 60° in 6 h or less, with at least 15 km/h before and after; no overnight recovery = peak humidity between 8 pm and 8 am stays below 55 %; useful rain = 2 mm or more in 6 h. The fan opens 18° plus however much the wind varies within ±3 h and reaches 25 km beyond the edge of the fire: one model cell, not a rate of spread. Methodology
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
6 Oct14 Nov
14 Nov 2026
How it evolved, day by day
6 Oct
18 Oct
23 Oct
1 Nov
8 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
32°high
65km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity
It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.2 mm on 15 Nov.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 15,398 ha in 2016, 9,239 ha in 2017, 6,197 ha in 2018, 4,918 ha in 2020, 6,055 ha in 2021, 1,749 ha in 2022, 4,783 ha in 2023, 8,587 ha in 2024, 6,123 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 32,001 ha that had burned before.
- 8,033 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2024 6,186 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,412 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2016 2,821 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,055 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2021 7,044 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,658 ha Nkhata Bay fire, September 2016 67,094 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,400 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2025 121,322 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,733 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2023 62,151 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,619 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2018 1,375 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,421 ha Nkhata Bay fire, October 2020 1,180 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 started25,297 ha reached on 6 Oct6.0 %
-
1,235 ha reached on 7 Oct0.1 %
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.
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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Oct | 27.2 °C | 42 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 7 Oct | 27.9 °C | 44 % | 45 km/h | 0.4 mm | High 34 |
| 8 Oct | 27.9 °C | 36 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 9 Oct | 26.6 °C | 41 % | 52 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 10 Oct | 27.3 °C | 38 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Oct | 26.7 °C | 42 % | 58 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Oct | 26.6 °C | 44 % | 53 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Oct | 27.2 °C | 36 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 14 Oct | 26.3 °C | 43 % | 49 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 44 |
| 15 Oct | 25.7 °C | 40 % | 55 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 50 |
| 16 Oct | 26.1 °C | 36 % | 54 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 50 |
| 17 Oct | 26.6 °C | 33 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 18 Oct | 26.5 °C | 41 % | 41 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Oct | 28.6 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 1.7 mm | High 28 |
| 20 Oct | 29.1 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 26 |
| 21 Oct | 30.1 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 22 Oct | 31.4 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 23 Oct | 31.7 °C | 22 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 24 Oct | 28.9 °C | 35 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 25 Oct | 27.1 °C | 41 % | 53 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 26 Oct | 28.0 °C | 44 % | 47 km/h | 0.4 mm | Very high 45 |
| 27 Oct | 28.8 °C | 34 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Oct | 31.0 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Oct | 29.5 °C | 38 % | 37 km/h | 0.7 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Oct | 26.8 °C | 49 % | 51 km/h | 0.8 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Oct | 26.8 °C | 47 % | 33 km/h | 2.2 mm | High 21 |
| 1 Nov | 27.3 °C | 46 % | 35 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 2 Nov | 28.5 °C | 46 % | 35 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Nov | 29.3 °C | 43 % | 38 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 29 |
| 4 Nov | 28.9 °C | 48 % | 35 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Nov | 28.4 °C | 39 % | 43 km/h | 0.7 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Nov | 29.0 °C | 35 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Nov | 30.0 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Nov | 29.8 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 9 Nov | 29.1 °C | 35 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 10 Nov | 27.2 °C | 44 % | 65 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 48 |
| 11 Nov | 27.7 °C | 46 % | 44 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Nov | 27.7 °C | 50 % | 42 km/h | 14.3 mm | Low 7 |
| 13 Nov | 26.9 °C | 53 % | 24 km/h | 1.2 mm | Very low 2 |
| 14 Nov | 27.3 °C | 48 % | 19 km/h | 1.5 mm | Low 6 |
| 15 Nov after | 27.4 °C | 56 % | 37 km/h | 4.2 mm | Low 6 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 29 Sept 2026
After · 14 Nov 2026
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 29 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 141 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 97: 6.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak141 µg/m³
Days over the guideline22 days
PM10148 µg/m³
Optical depth0.85
WHO 15
4 Oct10 Oct16 Oct22 Oct28 Oct
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 · 820Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
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 6 October 2026 to 14 November 2026 (40 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 October 2026 to 12 November 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 24,483 hectares (244.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nkhata Bay (25,297 ha, 6.0 %); Mzimba (1,235 ha, 0.1 %).
- Is the Nkhata Bay fire still active?
- No fire detections since 14 Nov 2026, 22:46 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 65 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
- What weather is expected at the fire over the next 72 hours?
- The wind is blowing from the south-east and pushing to the north-west; no sharp shifts are expected until Wed 18, 23:00. First useful rain: 2.8 mm in 6 h (Mon 16, 05:00). Times are local time at the fire. ECMWF IFS forecast (Open-Meteo) computed 15 Nov 2026, 22:23 UTC; this is not an official warning.
- 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 · 11 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Area: 42,712 → 24,375 ha.
- Area: 44,584 → 42,712 ha.
- Area: 115,668 → 44,584 ha.
- Area: 66,211 → 115,668 ha.
- The page “Nkhata Bay, 13 October 2026” has been merged into this one: it was the same fire.
- Area: 54,819 → 66,211 ha.
- Area: 42,430 → 54,819 ha.
- Area: 1,688 → 42,430 ha.
- Start date: 20 October 2026 → 6 October 2026.
- The page “Nkhata Bay, 14 October 2026” has been merged into this one: it was the same fire.
- Area: 1,654 → 1,688 ha.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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; 5 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 October 2026 to 12 November 2026. 820 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.
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.