Mwense fire, 25 July 2024 Mwense, Mansa
The fire started on 25 July 2024 in Mwense, Zambia, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,007 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 94th largest in Luapula since 2016 (of 533 with a page). Number 16 in Zambia in 2024, of 160.
- Burnt area
- 15,007ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 25 Jul 2024 – 6 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 25 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 358
- in a single hotspot: 60 MW
- Danger at start
- 40
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.4GW
- 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: 9,004 ha in 2016, 7,947 ha in 2017, 7,676 ha in 2018, 7,680 ha in 2019, 6,775 ha in 2020, 10,655 ha in 2021, 9,230 ha in 2022, 7,410 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,837 ha that had burned before.
- 7,966 ha Mwense fire, August 2022 24,417 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 7,390 ha Mwense fire, August 2021 25,982 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6,617 ha Mwense fire, August 2018 11,110 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,759 ha Mwense fire, July 2016 26,027 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,450 ha Mwense fire, July 2017 10,973 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,417 ha Mwense fire, August 2020 27,543 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,631 ha Mwense fire, August 2023 22,777 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,493 ha Mwense fire, July 2019 10,066 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mwense where it started14,258 ha reached on 23 Jul5.9 %
-
849 ha reached on 30 Jul0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Jul | 28.5 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Jul | 29.4 °C | 14 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Jul | 29.0 °C | 14 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 28 Jul | 28.9 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 29 Jul | 29.8 °C | 16 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 30 Jul | 30.7 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 31 Jul | 30.2 °C | 18 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 1 Aug | 28.7 °C | 22 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 2 Aug | 28.7 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 3 Aug | 29.1 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Aug | 30.5 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Aug | 31.6 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 6 Aug | 30.7 °C | 19 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 7 Aug after | 29.6 °C | 21 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 10 Aug after | 30.2 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 11 Aug after | 30.2 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 12 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 13 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 14 Aug after | 31.0 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 15 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 16 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 16 Aug after | 29.1 °C | 29 % | 53 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
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 29 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 41 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 28: 1.9 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 · 358Every 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 Mwense fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 July 2024 and 6 August 2024: 13 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 15,007 hectares (150.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mwense (14,258 ha, 5.9 %); Mansa (849 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.