Skip to content
worldfires
TZ · Tanzania · →

Iringa fire, August 2016 Iringa, Mbarali, Manyoni

Out · last detection 11 Sept 2016, 23:28 UTC

The fire started on 5 August 2016 in Iringa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 37 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 138,240 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.

It is the largest fire in Iringa since 2016 (of 71 with a page). The largest in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
138,240ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
37days
5 Aug 2016 – 10 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
3
districts
Started on
5 Aug
2016
Heat detections
4,504
in a single hotspot: 168 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
27.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Aug10 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

56789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567891011

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
45km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Iringa where it started
    129,473 ha reached on 4 Aug
    6.8 %
  2. Mbarali
    9,600 ha reached on 4 Aug
    0.7 %
  3. Manyoni
    23 ha reached on 10 Sept
    0.0 %

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)
5 Aug 26.6 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Aug 25.4 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Aug 26.4 °C 27 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Aug 26.6 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Aug 26.7 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Aug 26.6 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Aug 26.0 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Aug 26.6 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Aug 25.7 °C 36 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Aug 28.2 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
15 Aug 25.3 °C 40 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Aug 26.6 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Aug 27.0 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Aug 27.7 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Aug 26.9 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Aug 27.4 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Aug 28.9 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Aug 30.1 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
23 Aug 29.0 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug 26.7 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Aug 27.4 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Aug 26.9 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Aug 27.6 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Aug 26.4 °C 24 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Aug 27.7 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Aug 27.3 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Aug 26.2 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Sept 26.1 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Sept 26.1 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
3 Sept 25.9 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Sept 27.3 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Sept 27.1 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
6 Sept 26.5 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Sept 27.8 °C 34 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Sept 28.6 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Sept 28.7 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Sept 28.5 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Sept after 28.4 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Sept after 28.9 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Sept after 29.4 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Sept after 29.1 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Sept after 29.5 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
16 Sept after 29.5 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
17 Sept after 29.5 °C 33 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jul 2016
After · 17 Sept 2016

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 · 4,504Every 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 Iringa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 August 2016 and 10 September 2016: 37 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 138,240 hectares (1,382.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Iringa (129,473 ha, 6.8 %); Mbarali (9,600 ha, 0.7 %); Manyoni (23 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.1 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 45 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
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.