Rumphi fire, 23 July 2026 Rumphi
The fire started on 23 July 2026 in Rumphi, Malawi, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,477 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 33th largest in Northern Region since 2016 (of 420 with a page). Number 8 in Malawi in 2026, of 99.
- Burnt area
- 5,477ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 23 Jul 2026 – 28 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 92
- in a single hotspot: 49 MW
- Danger at start
- 12
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 939MW
- 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 9 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,227 ha in 2016, 2,848 ha in 2017, 1,203 ha in 2018, 1,655 ha in 2019, 960 ha in 2020, 964 ha in 2021, 895 ha in 2022, 1,780 ha in 2024, 328 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,290 ha that had burned before.
- 2,602 ha Rumphi fire, September 2017 5,896 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,522 ha Rumphi fire, August 2016 2,843 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 944 ha Rumphi fire, August 2021 1,544 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 924 ha Rumphi fire, July 2024 1,634 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 895 ha Rumphi fire, October 2022 1,066 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 892 ha Rumphi fire, July 2016 4,730 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 809 ha Rumphi fire, August 2019 11,230 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 627 ha Rumphi fire, August 2019 1,950 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Rumphi where it started5,508 ha reached on 23 Jul1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jul | 17.9 °C | 45 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 24 Jul | 17.2 °C | 48 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 25 Jul | 16.5 °C | 48 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 26 Jul | 15.9 °C | 50 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 27 Jul | 16.5 °C | 46 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 28 Jul | 18.1 °C | 42 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 29 Jul after | 17.6 °C | 43 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 30 Jul after | 17.7 °C | 46 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 31 Jul after | 17.3 °C | 42 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 1 Aug after | 15.7 °C | 42 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 2 Aug after | 16.4 °C | 42 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 16 |
| 3 Aug after | 16.4 °C | 47 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 4 Aug after | 16.3 °C | 54 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 5 Aug after | 17.1 °C | 52 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 6 Aug after | 17.3 °C | 51 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 7 Aug after | 18.2 °C | 46 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
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 23 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 16: 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 · 92Every 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 · 1 km away
- 11,230 haRumphi3 August 2019 · 7 days · 4 km away
- 7,693 haChitipa29 July 2016 · 6 days · 24 km away
- 4,941 haMafinga16 October 2017 · 3 days · 30 km away
- 4,919 haChama30 September 2026 · 11 days · 35 km away
- 11,134 haMafinga11 October 2017 · 11 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Rumphi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 July 2026 and 28 July 2026: 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 5,477 hectares (54.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Rumphi (5,508 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 18.1 °C, humidity dropped to 42 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 14, 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
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.