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Chunya fire, 22 June 2017 Chunya

Out · last detection 27 Jun 2017, 12:04 UTC

The fire started on 22 June 2017 in Chunya, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,340 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 70th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 47 in Tanzania in 2017, of 104.

Burnt area
4,340ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
22 Jun 2017 – 26 Jun 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Jun
2017
Heat detections
127
in a single hotspot: 83 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jun 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jun26 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627

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
38km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

28% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,207 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Chunya where it started
    4,366 ha reached on 22 Jun
    0.2 %

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)
22 Jun 28.1 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Jun 28.4 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Jun 28.2 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Jun 26.0 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Jun 28.9 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Jun after 27.1 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Jun after 26.6 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jun after 27.3 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Jun after 27.8 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Jul after 27.3 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Jul after 28.0 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Jul after 27.9 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Jul after 27.2 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Jul after 27.3 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Jul after 26.8 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jun 2017
After · 3 Jul 2017

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 · 127Every 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 22 June 2017 and 26 June 2017: 5 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 4,340 hectares (43.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chunya (4,366 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.