Mansa fire, 27 August 2018 Mansa, Lupososhi, Chipili
The fire started on 27 August 2018 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 83,277 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 20th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). The largest in Zambia in 2018, of 204.
- Burnt area
- 83,277ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 27 Aug 2018 – 14 Sept 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Aug
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 3,336
- in a single hotspot: 138 MW
- Danger at start
- 38
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 40.7GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 59,322 ha in 2016, 58,170 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 75,478 ha that had burned before.
- 54,095 ha Mansa fire, August 2017 258,414 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 32,939 ha Mansa fire, August 2016 80,978 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 15,703 ha Mansa fire, August 2016 136,692 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,120 ha Chipili fire, August 2016 76,625 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mansa where it started74,335 ha reached on 22 Aug9.6 %
-
4,744 ha reached on 22 Aug1.1 %
-
4,693 ha reached on 24 Aug1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Aug | 28.7 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 28 Aug | 28.2 °C | 20 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 29 Aug | 26.6 °C | 28 % | 56 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 30 Aug | 26.4 °C | 30 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Aug | 26.8 °C | 27 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 1 Sept | 28.0 °C | 27 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 2 Sept | 28.8 °C | 26 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Sept | 29.8 °C | 25 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 4 Sept | 29.4 °C | 21 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 5 Sept | 29.5 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 6 Sept | 29.5 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 7 Sept | 30.3 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Sept | 29.5 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Sept | 29.7 °C | 41 % | 29 km/h | 2.4 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 10 Sept | 28.3 °C | 38 % | 33 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 23 |
| 11 Sept | 28.7 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 12 Sept | 29.3 °C | 26 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 13 Sept | 30.3 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Sept | 31.1 °C | 23 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 21 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 16 Sept after | 31.0 °C | 21 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 17 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 19 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 18 Sept after | 31.4 °C | 16 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 19 Sept after | 30.3 °C | 17 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 20 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 17 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 21 Sept after | 30.4 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 22 Sept after | 30.9 °C | 21 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 23 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 24 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 28 % | 46 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.
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 · 3,336Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 185,598 haMansa21 August 2022 · 28 days · 9 km away
- 133,309 haMansa27 August 2023 · 23 days · 17 km away
- 259,734 haMansa24 August 2021 · 22 days · 20 km away
- 258,414 haMansa21 August 2017 · 34 days · 26 km away
- 280,384 haMansa25 August 2020 · 30 days · 28 km away
- 190,302 haMansa21 August 2019 · 36 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mansa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2018 and 14 September 2018: 19 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 83,277 hectares (832.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mansa (74,335 ha, 9.6 %); Lupososhi (4,744 ha, 1.1 %); Chipili (4,693 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 56 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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
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.