Mansa fire, 26 July 2024 Mansa
The fire started on 26 July 2024 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,460 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 435th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 127 in Zambia in 2024, of 160.
The power measured by the satellite is low (27.9 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
- 3,460ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 8days
- 26 Jul 2024 – 2 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 26 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 58
- in a single hotspot: 28 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 179MW
- 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: 2,588 ha in 2016, 2,268 ha in 2017, 1,780 ha in 2018, 3,152 ha in 2019, 813 ha in 2020, 632 ha in 2021, 461 ha in 2022, 1,210 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,383 ha that had burned before.
- 3,152 ha Mansa fire, August 2019 19,646 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,268 ha Mansa fire, August 2017 20,923 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,780 ha Mansa fire, August 2018 4,214 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,512 ha Mansa fire, August 2016 5,493 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,210 ha Mansa fire, August 2023 3,550 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 813 ha Mansa fire, August 2020 3,250 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mansa where it started3,486 ha reached on 30 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jul | 27.4 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 27 Jul | 27.0 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Jul | 26.8 °C | 17 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Jul | 27.8 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Jul | 28.4 °C | 19 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 31 Jul | 27.9 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 1 Aug | 26.2 °C | 23 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Aug | 26.2 °C | 27 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 3 Aug after | 26.5 °C | 31 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 5 Aug after | 29.7 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 6 Aug after | 28.6 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 8 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Aug after | 28.0 °C | 19 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Aug after | 27.9 °C | 22 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 12 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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 30 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 95 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 56: 3.8 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 · 58Every 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 26 July 2024 and 2 August 2024: 8 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 3,460 hectares (34.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mansa (3,486 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.4 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, 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.