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Mansa fire, 22 August 2016 Mansa, Chipili, Mwense

Out · last detection 12 Sept 2016, 23:10 UTC

The fire started on 22 August 2016 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 80,978 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 22th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 3 in Zambia in 2016, of 246.

Burnt area
80,978ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
22 Aug 2016 – 11 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
22 Aug
2016
Heat detections
3,890
in a single hotspot: 257 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
46.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Aug11 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

22232425262728293031123456789101112

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
59km/h · peak gust
17%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
    75,118 ha reached on 19 Aug
    9.7 %
  2. Chipili
    5,576 ha reached on 19 Aug
    1.3 %
  3. Mwense
    744 ha reached on 22 Aug
    0.3 %

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)
19 Aug 28.1 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Aug 29.0 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Aug 30.1 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Aug 30.0 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Aug 29.3 °C 17 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
24 Aug 26.0 °C 29 % 59 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Aug 25.8 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Aug 26.8 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Aug 26.6 °C 27 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Aug 26.3 °C 26 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
29 Aug 26.4 °C 25 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug 26.7 °C 24 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Aug 27.2 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Sept 26.6 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
2 Sept 26.4 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Sept 27.4 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Sept 28.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
5 Sept 29.4 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Sept 29.7 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Sept 30.1 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 Sept 31.1 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Sept 31.2 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Sept 31.1 °C 17 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Sept 30.1 °C 21 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Sept after 29.2 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
13 Sept after 29.9 °C 18 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
14 Sept after 30.2 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Sept after 31.0 °C 20 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Sept after 31.8 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept after 32.3 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Sept after 32.9 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
19 Sept after 30.9 °C 17 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Sept after 28.3 °C 24 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Sept after 29.5 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Sept after 30.0 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Sept after 31.0 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Sept after 31.5 °C 16 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Sept after 31.8 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Sept after 30.7 °C 17 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
27 Sept after 30.7 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Sept after 32.0 °C 18 % 32 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 · 15 Aug 2016
After · 18 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 · 3,890Every 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 22 August 2016 and 11 September 2016: 21 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 80,978 hectares (809.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mansa (75,118 ha, 9.7 %); Chipili (5,576 ha, 1.3 %); Mwense (744 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 59 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.