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Mansa fire, 24 August 2021 Mansa, Lupososhi, Chipili

Out · last detection 15 Sept 2021, 23:17 UTC

The fire started on 24 August 2021 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 259,734 hectares from heat detections, spread across 5 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 4th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). The largest in Zambia in 2021, of 213.

Burnt area
259,734ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
24 Aug 2021 – 14 Sept 2021
Municipalities hit
5
districts
Started on
24 Aug
2021
Heat detections
10,017
in a single hotspot: 228 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
129.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Sept 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Aug14 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

2425262728293031123456789101112131415

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
60km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 158,464 ha in 2016, 148,459 ha in 2017, 112,007 ha in 2018, 147,224 ha in 2019, 152,730 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 231,604 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mansa where it started
    169,544 ha reached on 17 Aug
    22 %
  2. Lupososhi
    55,588 ha reached on 17 Aug
    13 %
  3. Chipili
    24,961 ha reached on 17 Aug
    5.8 %
  4. Chifunabuli
    11,016 ha reached on 17 Aug
    3.6 %
  5. Mwense
    250 ha reached on 18 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
24 Aug 27.7 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Aug 28.9 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Aug 28.5 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Aug 28.7 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Aug 30.9 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Aug 29.9 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug 28.6 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Aug 28.0 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept 28.6 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Sept 28.7 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Sept 29.0 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Sept 29.1 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Sept 29.2 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Sept 29.2 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Sept 29.7 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Sept 29.9 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Sept 29.4 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
10 Sept 26.8 °C 30 % 60 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
11 Sept 25.5 °C 31 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Sept 27.2 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Sept 30.2 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Sept 30.5 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept after 31.2 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Sept after 32.5 °C 25 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Sept after 32.6 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
18 Sept after 31.7 °C 20 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
19 Sept after 28.9 °C 30 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
20 Sept after 29.9 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Sept after 31.9 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Sept after 29.6 °C 22 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
23 Sept after 29.0 °C 30 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Sept after 29.6 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Aug 2021
After · 21 Sept 2021

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 · 10,017Every 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 24 August 2021 and 14 September 2021: 22 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 259,734 hectares (2,597.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Mansa (169,544 ha, 22 %); Lupososhi (55,588 ha, 13 %); Chipili (24,961 ha, 5.8 %); Chifunabuli (11,016 ha, 3.6 %); Mwense (250 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 60 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.