Rumphi fire, 29 July 2024 Rumphi, Chitipa
The fire started on 29 July 2024 in Rumphi, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,244 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 40th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 418 with a page). Number 3 in Malawi in 2024, of 39.
- Burnt area
- 4,244ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 29 Jul 2024 – 31 Jul 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 29 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 86
- in a single hotspot: 45 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 667MW
- 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.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 37 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 517 ha in 2016, 657 ha in 2017, 609 ha in 2018, 1,372 ha in 2019, 14 ha in 2020, 340 ha in 2021, 1,091 ha in 2022, 63 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,012 ha that had burned before.
- 962 ha Rumphi fire, August 2022 1,757 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 893 ha Rumphi fire, August 2019 3,093 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 657 ha Rumphi fire, September 2017 5,896 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 479 ha Rumphi fire, August 2019 1,950 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 473 ha Rumphi fire, August 2016 2,843 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 402 ha Chitipa fire, August 2018 3,635 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 340 ha Rumphi fire, August 2021 1,544 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 130 ha Rumphi fire, August 2018 1,046 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Rumphi where it started3,976 ha reached on 29 Jul0.8 %
-
292 ha reached on 30 Jul0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 Jul | 20.4 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 30 Jul | 20.6 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 31 Jul | 18.9 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Aug after | 17.7 °C | 36 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 2 Aug after | 17.1 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Aug after | 18.7 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 4 Aug after | 19.9 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 5 Aug after | 21.2 °C | 33 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 6 Aug after | 19.4 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Aug after | 19.3 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 8 Aug after | 19.4 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 9 Aug after | 19.3 °C | 39 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 10 Aug after | 18.9 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 27 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 27 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 86Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,896 haRumphi15 September 2017 · 4 days · 8 km away
- 5,477 haRumphi23 July 2026 · 6 days · 9 km away
- 11,230 haRumphi3 August 2019 · 7 days · 13 km away
- 7,693 haChitipa29 July 2016 · 6 days · 18 km away
- 4,941 haMafinga16 October 2017 · 3 days · 30 km away
- 7,699 haMafinga15 October 2017 · 12 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Rumphi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 July 2024 and 31 July 2024: 3 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 4,244 hectares (42.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Rumphi (3,976 ha, 0.8 %); Chitipa (292 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 20.6 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class 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
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.