Mansa fire, 2 September 2023 Mansa
The fire started on 2 September 2023 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,971 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 361th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 93 in Zambia in 2023, of 165.
- Burnt area
- 3,971ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 2 Sept 2023 – 5 Sept 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 2 Sept
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 212
- in a single hotspot: 77 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.1GW
- 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
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,180 ha in 2016, 2,215 ha in 2017, 133 ha in 2018, 1,281 ha in 2019, 660 ha in 2020, 2,693 ha in 2021, 2,080 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,941 ha that had burned before.
- 2,693 ha Mansa fire, August 2021 259,734 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,180 ha Mansa fire, August 2016 80,978 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,031 ha Mansa fire, August 2022 185,598 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,847 ha Mansa fire, August 2017 258,414 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,136 ha Mansa fire, August 2019 190,302 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 133 ha Mansa fire, August 2018 83,277 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 48 ha Mansa fire, September 2022 6,383 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 28 ha Mansa fire, August 2020 280,384 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mansa where it started3,992 ha reached on 26 Aug0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Sept | 30.4 °C | 21 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 3 Sept | 31.4 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Sept | 30.3 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Sept | 30.7 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Sept after | 31.7 °C | 24 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 7 Sept after | 31.9 °C | 20 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Sept after | 31.3 °C | 20 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 9 Sept after | 30.9 °C | 18 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 10 Sept after | 30.5 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Sept after | 32.2 °C | 21 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 12 Sept after | 32.6 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 13 Sept after | 30.6 °C | 28 % | 62 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 14 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 29 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 26 % | 40 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.
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 · 212Every 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 · 18 km away
- 258,414 haMansa21 August 2017 · 34 days · 20 km away
- 133,309 haMansa27 August 2023 · 23 days · 21 km away
- 259,734 haMansa24 August 2021 · 22 days · 32 km away
- 280,384 haMansa25 August 2020 · 30 days · 39 km away
- 190,302 haMansa21 August 2019 · 36 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mansa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 September 2023 and 5 September 2023: 4 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 3,971 hectares (39.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mansa (3,992 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.