Rumphi fire, October 2024 Rumphi
The fire started on 31 October 2024 in Rumphi, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,820 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 76th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 418 with a page). Number 7 in Malawi in 2024, of 39.
- Burnt area
- 2,820ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 31 Oct 2024 – 5 Nov 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 31 Oct
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 66
- in a single hotspot: 64 MW
- Danger at start
- 9
- Low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 436MW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 8.4 mm on 8 Nov.
This area had burned before
77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 678 ha in 2018, 1,570 ha in 2020, 1,216 ha in 2021, 744 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,174 ha that had burned before.
- 1,216 ha Rumphi fire, November 2021 1,696 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 956 ha Rumphi fire, November 2020 2,268 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 744 ha Rumphi fire, November 2022 1,259 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 678 ha Rumphi fire, October 2018 1,314 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 614 ha Rumphi fire, October 2020 1,629 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Rumphi where it started2,839 ha reached on 25 Oct0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Oct | 28.8 °C | 37 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 9 |
| 1 Nov | 27.0 °C | 52 % | 47 km/h | 2.7 mm | Very low 2 |
| 2 Nov | 26.7 °C | 49 % | 50 km/h | 1.9 mm | Very low 2 |
| 3 Nov | 27.7 °C | 44 % | 46 km/h | 0.7 mm | Low 6 |
| 4 Nov | 28.2 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.3 mm | Low 9 |
| 5 Nov | 28.9 °C | 40 % | 41 km/h | 0.2 mm | Low 10 |
| 6 Nov after | 29.9 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 7 Nov after | 28.2 °C | 39 % | 49 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 8 Nov after | 25.1 °C | 58 % | 42 km/h | 8.4 mm | Very low 1 |
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 4 November 2024 the air beside the fire reached 29 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 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 · 66Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Rumphi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 October 2024 and 5 November 2024: 6 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 2,820 hectares (28.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Rumphi (2,839 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 10, class Low.
- 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.