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Chunya fire, 14 July 2021 Chunya

Out · last detection 22 Jul 2021, 11:02 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2021 in Chunya, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,831 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 18th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 15 in Tanzania in 2021, of 135.

Burnt area
8,831ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
14 Jul 2021 – 21 Jul 2021
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Jul
2021
Heat detections
322
in a single hotspot: 336 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Jul 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul21 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
54km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,739 ha in 2016, 3,893 ha in 2017, 725 ha in 2018, 5,283 ha in 2019, 2,928 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,922 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Chunya where it started
    8,884 ha reached on 14 Jul
    0.5 %

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)
14 Jul 27.2 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Jul 26.3 °C 36 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
16 Jul 25.8 °C 30 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Jul 25.0 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Jul 25.0 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Jul 26.1 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jul 27.1 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jul 27.2 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Jul after 27.0 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Jul after 24.5 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Jul after 25.0 °C 33 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Jul after 23.3 °C 33 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Jul after 23.0 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Jul after 24.7 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Jul after 26.1 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jul after 26.0 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Jul after 25.1 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Jul after 25.3 °C 34 % 56 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jul 2021
After · 28 Jul 2021

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 · 322Every 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 14 July 2021 and 21 July 2021: 8 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 8,831 hectares (88.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Chunya (8,884 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.