Skip to content
worldfires
ZM · Zambia · →

Solwezi fire, August 2025 Mushindano, Solwezi

Out · last detection 28 Aug 2025, 11:15 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2025 in Solwezi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,799 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 165th largest in North-Western since 2016 (of 286 with a page). Number 168 in Zambia in 2025, of 271.

Burnt area
3,799ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
17 Aug 2025 – 27 Aug 2025
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
17 Aug
2025
Heat detections
124
in a single hotspot: 97 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Aug 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug27 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324262728

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
48km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

63% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 707 ha in 2016, 1,343 ha in 2017, 663 ha in 2019, 803 ha in 2021, 478 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,408 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mushindano
    3,039 ha reached on 12 Aug
    0.3 %
  2. Solwezi where it started
    783 ha reached on 10 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
17 Aug 29.9 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Aug 28.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Aug 27.3 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
20 Aug 28.0 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Aug 28.4 °C 19 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Aug 29.8 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Aug 30.6 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Aug 30.0 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Aug 31.7 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Aug 32.2 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Aug 31.4 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
28 Aug after 31.0 °C 14 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Aug after 31.3 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Aug after 30.8 °C 12 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
31 Aug after 29.8 °C 14 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
1 Sept after 30.4 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
2 Sept after 29.8 °C 10 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
3 Sept after 29.1 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
4 Sept after 30.2 °C 13 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Sept after 30.4 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
6 Sept after 31.9 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2025
After · 3 Sept 2025

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 15 August 2025 the air beside the fire reached 94 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 52: 3.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak94 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM1097 µg/m³
Optical depth0.80
15161718192021222324252627282930
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 · 124Every 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 Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Solwezi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 August 2025 and 27 August 2025: 11 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 3,799 hectares (38.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mushindano (3,039 ha, 0.3 %); Solwezi (783 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Zambia (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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)). 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.