Chunya fire, 15 August 2022 Chunya, Iringa, Mbarali
The fire started on 15 August 2022 in Chunya, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,782 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 9th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 3 in Tanzania in 2022, of 71.
- Burnt area
- 15,782ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 11days
- 15 Aug 2022 – 25 Aug 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 15 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 691
- in a single hotspot: 187 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 8.2GW
- 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
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,327 ha in 2016, 10,425 ha in 2017, 4,732 ha in 2018, 3,812 ha in 2019, 8,513 ha in 2020, 5,325 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 15,563 ha that had burned before.
- 7,373 ha Iringa fire, August 2017 39,206 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,958 ha Chunya fire, July 2016 32,137 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,542 ha Chunya fire, September 2020 9,707 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,460 ha Iringa fire, July 2019 18,155 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,145 ha Chunya fire, August 2020 3,553 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,105 ha Chunya fire, July 2016 5,361 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,837 ha Iringa fire, October 2020 5,373 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,342 ha Chunya fire, June 2017 4,340 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chunya where it started11,721 ha reached on 12 Aug0.7 %
-
4,157 ha reached on 18 Aug0.2 %
-
1 ha reached on 21 Aug0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Aug | 29.3 °C | 29 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 16 Aug | 28.8 °C | 17 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 17 Aug | 27.4 °C | 28 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Aug | 28.0 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 19 Aug | 29.1 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Aug | 30.6 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 21 Aug | 29.8 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Aug | 25.7 °C | 35 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 23 Aug | 27.2 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Aug | 26.3 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Aug | 26.7 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Aug after | 27.5 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 27 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 28 Aug after | 27.4 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 29 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 29 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 30 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 31 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 31 Aug after | 27.0 °C | 33 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 1 Sept after | 27.1 °C | 30 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 2 Sept after | 26.9 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 3 Sept after | 28.4 °C | 23 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 23 % | 23 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 · 691Every 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 15 August 2022 and 25 August 2022: 11 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 15,782 hectares (157.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Chunya (11,721 ha, 0.7 %); Iringa (4,157 ha, 0.2 %); Mbarali (1 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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
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.