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Iringa fire, 26 August 2017 Iringa

Out · last detection 1 Sept 2017, 11:27 UTC

The fire started on 26 August 2017 in Iringa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,204 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 67th largest in Iringa since 2016 (of 71 with a page). Number 89 in Tanzania in 2017, of 104.

Burnt area
3,204ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
26 Aug 2017 – 31 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Aug
2017
Heat detections
130
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
865MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Aug31 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

2627282930311

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
37km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

20% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 656 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Iringa where it started
    3,225 ha reached on 25 Aug
    0.2 %

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)
26 Aug 29.1 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Aug 29.0 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Aug 29.7 °C 22 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Aug 28.3 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Aug 29.5 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Aug 29.5 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Sept after 28.8 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Sept after 28.4 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Sept after 29.1 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Sept after 29.0 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Sept after 29.4 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Sept after 28.6 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Sept after 28.4 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
8 Sept after 28.6 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Sept after 28.8 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Sept after 28.9 °C 26 % 31 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 · 19 Aug 2017
After · 7 Sept 2017

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 · 130Every 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 26 August 2017 and 31 August 2017: 6 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 3,204 hectares (32.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Iringa (3,225 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.