Chunya fire, 11 September 2020 Chunya
The fire started on 11 September 2020 in Chunya, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,402 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 67th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 82 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.
- Burnt area
- 4,402ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 11 Sept 2020 – 16 Sept 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 11 Sept
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 135
- in a single hotspot: 44 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 830MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,667 ha in 2016, 3,005 ha in 2017, 2,483 ha in 2018, 1,688 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,225 ha that had burned before.
- 3,005 ha Chunya fire, July 2017 12,300 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,986 ha Manyoni fire, July 2016 3,998 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,688 ha Iringa fire, July 2019 97,386 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 622 ha Chunya fire, July 2016 6,024 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chunya where it started4,427 ha reached on 11 Sept0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Sept | 27.9 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Sept | 28.7 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Sept | 29.7 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Sept | 30.4 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 15 Sept | 29.3 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 16 Sept | 30.7 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Sept after | 30.6 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 18 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 19 Sept after | 29.2 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 20 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Sept after | 30.4 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Sept after | 28.8 °C | 33 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 29 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
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 · 135Every 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 11 September 2020 and 16 September 2020: 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 4,402 hectares (44.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Chunya (4,427 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.7 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.