Mansa fire, 28 July 2026 Mansa
The fire started on 28 July 2026 in Mansa, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,318 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 164th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 109 in Zambia in 2026, of 604.
The power measured by the satellite is low (25.2 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
- 8,318ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 21days
- 28 Jul 2026 – 17 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 243
- in a single hotspot: 25 MW
- Danger at start
- 28
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,043 ha in 2017, 2,429 ha in 2018, 1,247 ha in 2019, 2,907 ha in 2020, 3,467 ha in 2021, 2,390 ha in 2022, 2,459 ha in 2023, 1,236 ha in 2024, 2,201 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,713 ha that had burned before.
- 5,007 ha Mansa fire, August 2017 11,074 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,996 ha Mansa fire, August 2021 4,792 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,283 ha Mansa fire, August 2020 3,084 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 477 ha Mansa fire, August 2023 3,041 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 92 ha Mansa fire, August 2018 5,544 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mansa where it started8,377 ha reached on 25 Jul1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Jul | 24.9 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Jul | 25.4 °C | 37 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 30 Jul | 25.4 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 31 Jul | 25.0 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 1 Aug | 23.0 °C | 30 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 2 Aug | 22.7 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 3 Aug | 23.0 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 4 Aug | 23.9 °C | 39 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Aug | 24.4 °C | 38 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Aug | 25.0 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Aug | 25.4 °C | 44 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 8 Aug | 25.3 °C | 44 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 9 Aug | 26.0 °C | 45 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 10 Aug | 28.3 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 11 Aug | 28.1 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 12 Aug | 27.1 °C | 34 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Aug | 24.9 °C | 44 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 14 Aug | 23.5 °C | 43 % | 50 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 Aug | 23.5 °C | 38 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Aug | 23.6 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 17 Aug | 24.4 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Aug after | 25.3 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Aug after | 24.8 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 20 Aug after | 25.0 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Aug after | 25.4 °C | 32 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Aug after | 26.8 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Aug after | 27.1 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 24 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 36 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 25 Aug after | 27.2 °C | 40 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 26 Aug after | 28.0 °C | 39 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Aug after | 27.3 °C | 43 % | 52 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 16 August 2026 the air beside the fire reached 76 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 43: 2.9 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 · 243Every 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 28 July 2026 and 17 August 2026: 21 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 8,318 hectares (83.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mansa (8,377 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.3 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.