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Iringa fire, October 2016 Iringa, Mbarali

Out · last detection 28 Oct 2016, 11:02 UTC

The fire started on 6 October 2016 in Iringa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 22 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 16,584 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Iringa since 2016 (of 71 with a page). Number 10 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
16,584ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
22days
6 Oct 2016 – 27 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
6 Oct
2016
Heat detections
575
in a single hotspot: 106 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

28 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Oct27 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121314151718192021222324252728

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
45km/h · peak gust
20%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
    15,171 ha reached on 5 Oct
    0.8 %
  2. Mbarali
    1,522 ha reached on 19 Oct
    0.1 %

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)
6 Oct 30.5 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Oct 29.5 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Oct 30.3 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
9 Oct 30.1 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Oct 30.1 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Oct 30.8 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Oct 29.3 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Oct 30.0 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Oct 30.3 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Oct 30.4 °C 26 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Oct 30.1 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Oct 30.7 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Oct 30.1 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Oct 29.6 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Oct 29.5 °C 21 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Oct 28.8 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Oct 30.5 °C 20 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
23 Oct 30.6 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Oct 31.6 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Oct 31.0 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Oct 30.4 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 45
27 Oct 30.5 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
28 Oct after 30.4 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
29 Oct after 31.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Oct after 31.5 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Oct after 33.0 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Nov after 31.9 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Nov after 32.5 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm Very high 45
3 Nov after 32.4 °C 20 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Nov after 31.9 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
5 Nov after 31.0 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Nov after 30.2 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Sept 2016
After · 3 Nov 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 · 575Every 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 6 October 2016 and 27 October 2016: 22 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 16,584 hectares (165.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Iringa (15,171 ha, 0.8 %); Mbarali (1,522 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.