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Mansa fire, 31 July 2018 Mansa

Out · last detection 24 Aug 2018, 11:32 UTC

The fire started on 31 July 2018 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,615 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 100th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 19 in Zambia in 2018, of 204.

Burnt area
13,615ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
31 Jul 2018 – 23 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
31 Jul
2018
Heat detections
598
in a single hotspot: 67 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Jul23 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

31123456789101112131415161718192021222324

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
47km/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

75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 9,257 ha in 2016, 5,205 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 10,214 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mansa where it started
    13,710 ha reached on 31 Jul
    1.8 %

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 Jul 27.6 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Aug 27.3 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Aug 28.2 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Aug 28.7 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Aug 28.1 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Aug 28.2 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Aug 29.0 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Aug 29.8 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
8 Aug 30.3 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Aug 30.5 °C 14 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Aug 29.4 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Aug 29.5 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Aug 27.8 °C 22 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Aug 27.8 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Aug 27.5 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
15 Aug 28.0 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
16 Aug 27.9 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Aug 28.2 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Aug 28.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug 27.6 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Aug 27.6 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Aug 27.6 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Aug 29.9 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug 30.7 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Aug after 28.9 °C 30 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Aug after 28.8 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Aug after 29.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Aug after 29.7 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Aug after 29.2 °C 18 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Aug after 27.4 °C 27 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
30 Aug after 27.4 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Aug after 27.6 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Sept after 28.9 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
2 Sept after 29.6 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Jul 2018
After · 30 Aug 2018

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 · 598Every 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 July 2018 and 23 August 2018: 24 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 13,615 hectares (136.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mansa (13,710 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.