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Mansa fire, 31 August 2016 Mansa, Lupososhi, Chifunabuli

Out · last detection 23 Sept 2016, 11:58 UTC

The fire started on 31 August 2016 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 136,692 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the 11th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). The largest in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
136,692ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
23days
31 Aug 2016 – 22 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
31 Aug
2016
Heat detections
5,772
in a single hotspot: 184 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
70.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Aug22 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

311234567891011121314151617181920212223

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
53km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mansa where it started
    100,581 ha reached on 24 Aug
    13 %
  2. Lupososhi
    27,100 ha reached on 27 Aug
    6.5 %
  3. Chifunabuli
    9,909 ha reached on 24 Aug
    3.2 %

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)
31 Aug 27.1 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Sept 26.8 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Sept 26.4 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept 27.6 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Sept 28.6 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Sept 29.3 °C 26 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Sept 29.5 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Sept 30.0 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Sept 31.2 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Sept 30.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Sept 31.2 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Sept 30.3 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Sept 29.5 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Sept 30.1 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
14 Sept 30.3 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
15 Sept 31.0 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept 32.0 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Sept 32.9 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
18 Sept 33.3 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Sept 30.9 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Sept 28.6 °C 26 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Sept 29.7 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Sept 30.1 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Sept after 30.9 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Sept after 31.4 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Sept after 31.7 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
26 Sept after 31.1 °C 17 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Sept after 31.0 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
28 Sept after 32.4 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Sept after 32.6 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Sept after 32.1 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Oct after 31.9 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
2 Oct after 33.7 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Aug 2016
After · 29 Sept 2016

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 5,772Every 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 Mansa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 August 2016 and 22 September 2016: 23 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 136,692 hectares (1,366.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mansa (100,581 ha, 13 %); Lupososhi (27,100 ha, 6.5 %); Chifunabuli (9,909 ha, 3.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.

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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.