Chunya fire, September 2025 Chunya, Mbarali
The fire started on 5 September 2025 in Chunya, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,036 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 28th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 48 in Tanzania in 2025, of 161.
- Burnt area
- 6,036ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 5 Sept 2025 – 8 Sept 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 199
- in a single hotspot: 129 MW
- Danger at start
- 42
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.1GW
- 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
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,353 ha in 2016, 1,637 ha in 2017, 197 ha in 2018, 1,828 ha in 2019, 2,206 ha in 2020, 910 ha in 2021, 3,144 ha in 2022, 10 ha in 2023, 1,454 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,751 ha that had burned before.
- 2,198 ha Chunya fire, October 2020 5,796 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,740 ha Chunya fire, September 2016 3,819 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 759 ha Chunya fire, July 2019 17,071 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 480 ha Chunya fire, July 2021 8,831 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 182 ha Mbarali fire, September 2019 3,911 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 65 ha Chunya fire, July 2017 5,202 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 8 ha Mbarali fire, October 2020 4,264 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3 ha Chunya fire, August 2022 4,844 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Chunya where it started5,109 ha reached on 5 Sept0.3 %
-
964 ha reached on 5 Sept0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 27.2 °C | 16 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Sept | 28.1 °C | 14 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Sept | 27.4 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Sept | 27.0 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Sept after | 27.0 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 11 Sept after | 28.1 °C | 20 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Sept after | 26.8 °C | 17 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 13 Sept after | 27.2 °C | 17 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 14 Sept after | 29.7 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Sept after | 27.9 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 16 Sept after | 27.0 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Sept after | 27.3 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Sept after | 28.4 °C | 27 % | 35 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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 8 September 2025 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 199Every 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 5 September 2025 and 8 September 2025: 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 6,036 hectares (60.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Chunya (5,109 ha, 0.3 %); Mbarali (964 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 42 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.