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Chunya fire, 22 July 2017 Chunya

Out · last detection 27 Jul 2017, 23:46 UTC

The fire started on 22 July 2017 in Chunya, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,202 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 44th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 33 in Tanzania in 2017, of 104.

Burnt area
5,202ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
22 Jul 2017 – 27 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Jul
2017
Heat detections
160
in a single hotspot: 140 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jul27 Jul

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
41km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,392 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,191 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chunya where it started
    5,234 ha reached on 21 Jul
    0.3 %

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 Jul 28.3 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Jul 28.9 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Jul 28.8 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Jul 27.3 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Jul 28.2 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Jul 28.8 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jul after 27.0 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Jul after 27.2 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jul after 28.3 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Jul after 28.4 °C 31 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Aug after 28.3 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Aug after 28.4 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Aug after 26.1 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Aug after 26.5 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Aug after 28.5 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Aug after 28.6 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jul 2017
After · 3 Aug 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 · 160Every 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 July 2017 and 27 July 2017: 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 5,202 hectares (52.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chunya (5,234 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.