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Chunya fire, 10 July 2016 Chunya, Mbarali

Out · last detection 16 Jul 2016, 11:52 UTC

The fire started on 10 July 2016 in Chunya, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,361 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 41th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 47 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
5,361ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
10 Jul 2016 – 15 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
10 Jul
2016
Heat detections
171
in a single hotspot: 86 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jul15 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

10111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

25°high
44km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Chunya where it started
    5,353 ha reached on 10 Jul
    0.3 %
  2. Mbarali
    41 ha
    0.0 %

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)
10 Jul 24.5 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Jul 23.6 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Jul 24.3 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Jul 23.9 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
14 Jul 24.7 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Jul 24.6 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
16 Jul after 25.1 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Jul after 25.0 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Jul after 25.0 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Jul after 26.0 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Jul after 25.4 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Jul after 26.0 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Jul after 26.0 °C 41 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Jul after 26.9 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Jul after 25.9 °C 43 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
25 Jul after 26.3 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 27

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jul 2016
After · 22 Jul 2016

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 171Every 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 Tanzania ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Chunya fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 July 2016 and 15 July 2016: 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 5,361 hectares (53.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chunya (5,353 ha, 0.3 %); Mbarali (41 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 24.7 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Tanzania (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.

Emergency number: 112

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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.