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Mansa fire, 21 August 2019 Mansa, Lupososhi, Chifunabuli

Out · last detection 26 Sept 2019, 23:17 UTC

The fire started on 21 August 2019 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 190,302 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 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 6th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). The largest in Zambia in 2019, of 243.

Burnt area
190,302ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
36days
21 Aug 2019 – 25 Sept 2019
Municipalities hit
4
districts
Started on
21 Aug
2019
Heat detections
8,794
in a single hotspot: 208 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
98.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Sept 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Aug25 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

21222324252627282930311234567891011121314151617181920212223242526

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
57km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 16.9 mm on 1 Oct.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 128,565 ha in 2016, 124,035 ha in 2017, 92,223 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 172,258 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mansa where it started
    128,712 ha reached on 14 Aug
    17 %
  2. Lupososhi
    50,190 ha reached on 14 Aug
    12 %
  3. Chifunabuli
    8,580 ha reached on 15 Aug
    2.8 %
  4. Chipili
    4,032 ha reached on 14 Aug
    0.9 %

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)
21 Aug 25.1 °C 25 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Aug 23.5 °C 32 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Aug 24.9 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Aug 26.7 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Aug 27.9 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Aug 29.0 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Aug 30.0 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Aug 30.2 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Aug 30.1 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Aug 29.8 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Aug 31.3 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Sept 32.1 °C 17 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept 31.2 °C 25 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
3 Sept 28.5 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Sept 28.0 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Sept 30.2 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Sept 29.5 °C 21 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
7 Sept 26.4 °C 22 % 57 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
8 Sept 22.4 °C 34 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept 26.1 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Sept 27.2 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Sept 29.6 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Sept 30.9 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Sept 31.2 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Sept 31.8 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Sept 32.1 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Sept 30.2 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
17 Sept 30.0 °C 27 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
18 Sept 29.8 °C 22 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Sept 30.4 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept 30.6 °C 24 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
21 Sept 30.8 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Sept 32.1 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Sept 32.8 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Sept 31.8 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Sept 30.7 °C 24 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
26 Sept after 26.6 °C 34 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Sept after 26.9 °C 33 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
28 Sept after 29.9 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Sept after 31.3 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Sept after 31.6 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Oct after 27.5 °C 48 % 28 km/h 16.9 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Aug 2019
After · 2 Oct 2019

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 · 8,794Every 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 21 August 2019 and 25 September 2019: 36 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 190,302 hectares (1,903.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Mansa (128,712 ha, 17 %); Lupososhi (50,190 ha, 12 %); Chifunabuli (8,580 ha, 2.8 %); Chipili (4,032 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.8 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 57 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, 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.