Iringa fire, October 2020 Iringa
The fire started on 6 October 2020 in Iringa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,373 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 30th largest in Iringa since 2016 (of 71 with a page). Number 56 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.
- Burnt area
- 5,373ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 6 Oct 2020 – 9 Oct 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 6 Oct
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 148
- in a single hotspot: 67 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 885MW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 15 Oct.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,334 ha in 2016, 2,512 ha in 2017, 1,068 ha in 2018, 3,216 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,222 ha that had burned before.
- 4,299 ha Chunya fire, July 2016 32,137 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,158 ha Iringa fire, July 2019 18,155 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,512 ha Iringa fire, August 2017 39,206 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 302 ha Iringa fire, September 2018 113,445 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Iringa where it started5,408 ha reached on 5 Oct0.3 %
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 | 32.6 °C | 18 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 7 Oct | 31.8 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 8 Oct | 31.6 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 9 Oct | 32.0 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 10 Oct after | 31.1 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Oct after | 32.0 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Oct after | 32.0 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Oct after | 29.8 °C | 37 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 14 Oct after | 30.8 °C | 34 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Oct after | 27.6 °C | 53 % | 42 km/h | 2.1 mm | Moderate 11 |
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 · 148Every 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 · 13 km away
- 42,802 haIringa28 July 2023 · 43 days · 22 km away
- 113,063 haIringa19 August 2026 · 45 days · 27 km away
- 75,347 haIringa20 July 2026 · 45 days · 30 km away
- 97,386 haIringa7 July 2019 · 26 days · 31 km away
- 138,240 haIringaAugust 2016 · 37 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Iringa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 October 2020 and 9 October 2020: 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 5,373 hectares (53.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Iringa (5,408 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 37 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.