Mansa fire, 24 August 2021 Mansa
The fire started on 24 August 2021 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,461 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 138th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 29 in Zambia in 2021, of 213.
- Burnt area
- 9,461ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 24 Aug 2021 – 9 Sept 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 24 Aug
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 359
- in a single hotspot: 88 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 4.0GW
- 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
98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,353 ha in 2016, 5,848 ha in 2017, 3,588 ha in 2018, 4,340 ha in 2019, 5,402 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 9,236 ha that had burned before.
- 4,951 ha Mansa fire, August 2020 280,384 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,003 ha Mansa fire, August 2016 136,692 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,570 ha Mansa fire, September 2017 4,585 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,147 ha Mansa fire, September 2019 3,140 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,125 ha Mansa fire, August 2018 34,977 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,405 ha Mansa fire, August 2018 3,345 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 643 ha Mansa fire, August 2017 258,414 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 466 ha Mansa fire, August 2019 190,302 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mansa where it started9,529 ha reached on 19 Aug1.2 %
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 | 28.5 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 25 Aug | 29.7 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Aug | 29.4 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 27 Aug | 29.6 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Aug | 31.4 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Aug | 31.4 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Aug | 29.9 °C | 25 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Aug | 29.4 °C | 22 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Sept | 29.8 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Sept | 30.0 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 3 Sept | 30.1 °C | 24 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 4 Sept | 30.1 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 5 Sept | 30.2 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Sept | 30.0 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Sept | 30.5 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Sept | 31.1 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Sept | 30.7 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 10 Sept after | 28.1 °C | 27 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 11 Sept after | 25.7 °C | 31 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Sept after | 27.8 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 13 Sept after | 30.4 °C | 30 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Sept after | 31.5 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Sept after | 32.2 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Sept after | 33.0 °C | 24 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 22 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 18 Sept after | 32.8 °C | 21 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Sept after | 29.9 °C | 29 % | 46 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.
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 · 359Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 34,977 haMansa28 August 2018 · 25 days · 6 km away
- 23,838 haMilengi13 August 2025 · 27 days · 6 km away
- 24,279 haMilengi15 August 2018 · 26 days · 19 km away
- 37,052 haMilengi22 August 2017 · 18 days · 26 km away
- 136,692 haMansa31 August 2016 · 23 days · 34 km away
- 280,384 haMansa25 August 2020 · 30 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mansa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 August 2021 and 9 September 2021: 17 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 9,461 hectares (94.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mansa (9,529 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.
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.