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Solwezi fire, August 2026 Solwezi, Kalumbila

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2026, 11:55 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2026 in Solwezi, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,514 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 199th largest in North-Western since 2016 (of 286 with a page). Number 438 in Zambia in 2026, of 610.

Burnt area
3,514ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
15 Aug 2026 – 23 Aug 2026
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Aug
2026
Heat detections
71
in a single hotspot: 115 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
336MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Aug 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug23 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

151617181921222324

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

31°high
43km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 37 ha in 2020, 1,541 ha in 2025.

What happened to each town

  1. Solwezi where it started
    3,217 ha reached on 13 Aug
    1.0 %
  2. Kalumbila
    322 ha reached on 13 Aug
    0.0 %

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)
13 Aug 26.9 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Aug 25.7 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Aug 25.7 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Aug 26.4 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Aug 27.4 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Aug 28.6 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Aug 28.3 °C 14 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Aug 28.4 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
21 Aug 28.9 °C 19 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Aug 29.7 °C 21 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Aug 30.4 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Aug after 30.7 °C 21 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
25 Aug after 30.6 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Aug after 31.2 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Aug after 30.0 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Aug after 29.2 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Aug after 29.5 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug after 31.6 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug after 31.9 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
1 Sept after 32.5 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
2 Sept after 31.6 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
3 Sept after 31.7 °C 21 % 38 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 · 8 Aug 2026
After · 30 Aug 2026

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 20 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 163 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 82: 5.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak163 µg/m³
Days over the guideline17 days
PM10167 µg/m³
Optical depth1.28
1112131415161718192021222324252627
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 · 71Every 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 15 August 2026 and 23 August 2026: 9 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 3,514 hectares (35.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Solwezi (3,217 ha, 1.0 %); Kalumbila (322 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
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.

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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.