Iringa fire, 16 July 2019 Iringa, Mbarali, Chunya
The fire started on 16 July 2019 in Iringa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 18,155 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 12th largest in Iringa since 2016 (of 71 with a page). Number 5 in Tanzania in 2019, of 123.
- Burnt area
- 18,155ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 17days
- 16 Jul 2019 – 1 Aug 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 16 Jul
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 685
- in a single hotspot: 122 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 5.6GW
- 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 57 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
79% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6,999 ha in 2016, 10,621 ha in 2017, 3,260 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,312 ha that had burned before.
- 10,060 ha Iringa fire, August 2017 39,206 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,483 ha Chunya fire, July 2016 32,137 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,946 ha Mbarali fire, September 2016 3,163 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 524 ha Chunya fire, July 2016 5,361 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 409 ha Iringa fire, September 2018 113,445 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 13 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
-
Iringa where it started10,991 ha reached on 16 Jul0.6 %
-
4,846 ha reached on 16 Jul0.3 %
-
2,429 ha reached on 16 Jul0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 Jul | 26.4 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Jul | 26.5 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Jul | 25.1 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Jul | 27.0 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Jul | 28.4 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Jul | 30.1 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 22 Jul | 26.6 °C | 25 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 23 Jul | 26.7 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Jul | 29.6 °C | 21 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Jul | 30.5 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 26 Jul | 27.1 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Jul | 26.4 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 28 Jul | 25.6 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 29 Jul | 28.1 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 30 Jul | 28.0 °C | 29 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 31 Jul | 26.5 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 1 Aug | 28.1 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 39 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 28 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Aug after | 29.1 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 5 Aug after | 30.1 °C | 23 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 6 Aug after | 30.3 °C | 21 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 7 Aug after | 30.0 °C | 24 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 8 Aug after | 29.5 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Aug after | 28.6 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 10 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 11 Aug after | 28.0 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
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 · 685Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 113,445 haIringaSeptember 2018 · 35 days · 16 km away
- 42,802 haIringa28 July 2023 · 43 days · 28 km away
- 138,240 haIringaAugust 2016 · 37 days · 32 km away
- 140,758 haMbarali4 September 2021 · 45 days · 36 km away
- 97,386 haIringa7 July 2019 · 26 days · 36 km away
- 75,347 haIringa20 July 2026 · 45 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Iringa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 July 2019 and 1 August 2019: 17 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 18,155 hectares (181.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Iringa (10,991 ha, 0.6 %); Mbarali (4,846 ha, 0.3 %); Chunya (2,429 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % 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
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.