Mansa fire, 13 July 2024 Mansa
The fire started on 13 July 2024 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,132 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 505th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 150 in Zambia in 2024, of 160.
The power measured by the satellite is low (15.7 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,132ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 13 Jul 2024 – 18 Jul 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 13 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 23
- in a single hotspot: 16 MW
- Danger at start
- 35
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 118MW
- 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: 2,516 ha in 2016, 652 ha in 2017, 1,229 ha in 2018, 2,511 ha in 2019, 1,603 ha in 2020, 2,292 ha in 2021, 1,165 ha in 2022, 2,092 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,115 ha that had burned before.
- 2,283 ha Mansa fire, July 2019 5,146 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,258 ha Mansa fire, July 2016 20,463 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,229 ha Mansa fire, July 2018 13,615 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,011 ha Mansa fire, August 2022 3,911 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 339 ha Mansa fire, August 2017 3,492 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 169 ha Mansa fire, August 2021 4,390 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 107 ha Mansa fire, August 2017 20,923 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mansa where it started3,154 ha reached on 17 Jul0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Jul | 27.6 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Jul | 27.1 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Jul | 26.9 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 16 Jul | 27.4 °C | 26 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Jul | 27.1 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Jul | 26.4 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Jul after | 26.1 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Jul after | 27.7 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Jul after | 28.6 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Jul after | 28.8 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Jul after | 27.2 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 24 Jul after | 27.0 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Jul after | 27.0 °C | 19 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 26 Jul after | 27.8 °C | 18 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Jul after | 27.4 °C | 19 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Jul after | 27.2 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 11 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 23Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mansa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 July 2024 and 18 July 2024: 6 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 3,132 hectares (31.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mansa (3,154 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 27.6 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class 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.