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Manyinga fire, August 2024 Manyinga, Kabompo

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2024, 12:41 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2024 in Manyinga, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,562 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 193th largest in North-Western since 2016 (of 286 with a page). Number 122 in Zambia in 2024, of 160.

Burnt area
3,562ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
8 Aug 2024 – 14 Aug 2024
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Aug
2024
Heat detections
133
in a single hotspot: 94 MW
Danger at start
48
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

891011121415

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

32°high
41km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 156 ha in 2017, 93 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Manyinga where it started
    3,076 ha reached on 1 Aug
    0.4 %
  2. Kabompo
    511 ha reached on 1 Aug
    0.1 %

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)
8 Aug 30.8 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Aug 31.2 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Aug 31.2 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
11 Aug 30.9 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Aug 31.7 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Aug 31.6 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Aug 31.6 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Aug after 32.3 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Aug after 31.3 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Aug after 30.1 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
18 Aug after 30.4 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Aug after 30.8 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Aug after 30.9 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Aug after 30.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Aug after 30.4 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Aug after 29.9 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Aug after 29.5 °C 17 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 1 Aug 2024
After · 21 Aug 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 14 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 63 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 31: 2.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak63 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM1092 µg/m³
Optical depth0.75
67891011121314151617
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 133Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Zambia ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Manyinga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 August 2024 and 14 August 2024: 7 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 3,562 hectares (35.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Manyinga (3,076 ha, 0.4 %); Kabompo (511 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.7 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
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.

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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.