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Chunya fire, 28 July 2016 Iringa, Chunya, Manyoni

Out · last detection 15 Aug 2016, 23:34 UTC

The fire started on 28 July 2016 in Chunya, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 32,137 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 5 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
32,137ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
18days
28 Jul 2016 – 14 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
4
districts
Started on
28 Jul
2016
Heat detections
1,202
in a single hotspot: 168 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
10.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jul14 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

28293031123456789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
42km/h · peak gust
20%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. Iringa
    28,565 ha reached on 29 Jul
    1.5 %
  2. Chunya where it started
    3,676 ha reached on 28 Jul
    0.2 %
  3. Manyoni
    96 ha
    0.0 %
  4. Mbarali
    1 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)
28 Jul 28.6 °C 32 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Jul 27.8 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Jul 27.3 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Jul 29.4 °C 20 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Aug 28.5 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Aug 29.0 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Aug 27.7 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Aug 28.8 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Aug 27.6 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Aug 26.2 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Aug 27.3 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
8 Aug 27.6 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
9 Aug 28.1 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Aug 27.6 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Aug 27.4 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Aug 28.0 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Aug 27.1 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Aug 29.1 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Aug after 26.6 °C 39 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Aug after 27.5 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Aug after 27.3 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Aug after 28.7 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug after 27.8 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug after 28.6 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Aug after 30.1 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Aug after 31.4 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Aug after 30.4 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Aug after 27.5 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
25 Aug after 28.0 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Aug after 27.9 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Aug after 28.6 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Aug after 27.4 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Aug after 28.5 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Aug after 28.2 °C 25 % 40 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.

Before · 21 Jul 2016
After · 21 Aug 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 · 1,202Every 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 28 July 2016 and 14 August 2016: 18 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 32,137 hectares (321.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Iringa (28,565 ha, 1.5 %); Chunya (3,676 ha, 0.2 %); Manyoni (96 ha, 0.0 %); Mbarali (1 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.4 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 42 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 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.