Chunya fire, 27 August 2020 Chunya
The fire started on 27 August 2020 in Chunya, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,474 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 64th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 81 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.
- Burnt area
- 4,474ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 27 Aug 2020 – 30 Aug 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Aug
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 143
- in a single hotspot: 103 MW
- Danger at start
- 29
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 47 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,720 ha in 2016, 2,010 ha in 2017, 911 ha in 2018, 3,283 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,200 ha that had burned before.
- 2,430 ha Chunya fire, June 2019 4,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,226 ha Chunya fire, June 2017 4,340 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,039 ha Chunya fire, July 2016 5,361 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 827 ha Chunya fire, July 2019 17,071 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 42 ha Iringa fire, August 2017 39,206 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 26 ha Iringa fire, July 2019 18,155 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chunya where it started4,502 ha reached on 27 Aug0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Aug | 27.8 °C | 36 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 28 Aug | 28.9 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Aug | 28.6 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 30 Aug | 28.8 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 31 Aug after | 29.3 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 1 Sept after | 28.6 °C | 23 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 2 Sept after | 27.6 °C | 28 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 3 Sept after | 27.5 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 4 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 5 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 6 Sept after | 27.5 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Sept after | 27.5 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 8 Sept after | 27.3 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Sept after | 26.2 °C | 28 % | 39 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.
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 · 143Every 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 Chunya fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 August 2020 and 30 August 2020: 4 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 4,474 hectares (44.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chunya (4,502 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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
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.