Iringa fire, 8 August 2023 Iringa, Chunya
The fire started on 8 August 2023 in Iringa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,672 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 52th largest in Iringa since 2016 (of 71 with a page). Number 29 in Tanzania in 2023, of 44.
- Burnt area
- 3,672ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 8 Aug 2023 – 14 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 8 Aug
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 148
- in a single hotspot: 164 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,867 ha in 2016, 2,991 ha in 2017, 2,226 ha in 2018, 1,230 ha in 2019, 1,707 ha in 2020, 1,993 ha in 2021, 686 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,683 ha that had burned before.
- 2,991 ha Iringa fire, August 2017 39,206 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,737 ha Chunya fire, July 2016 32,137 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,993 ha Mbarali fire, September 2021 140,758 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,065 ha Iringa fire, October 2020 5,373 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,062 ha Iringa fire, July 2019 18,155 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 686 ha Chunya fire, August 2022 15,782 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 643 ha Chunya fire, September 2020 9,707 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 44 ha Mbarali fire, September 2016 3,163 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Iringa where it started3,667 ha reached on 7 Aug0.2 %
-
29 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Aug | 27.5 °C | 26 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Aug | 28.1 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Aug | 26.1 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Aug | 28.1 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 12 Aug | 27.4 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 13 Aug | 27.2 °C | 34 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 14 Aug | 28.6 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 15 Aug after | 29.5 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 16 Aug after | 29.3 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 17 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 27 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Aug after | 28.5 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 19 Aug after | 28.9 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 20 Aug after | 30.7 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Aug after | 30.4 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 22 Aug after | 31.1 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Aug after | 29.9 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Aug after | 29.5 °C | 25 % | 34 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.
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 · 11 km away
- 42,802 haIringa28 July 2023 · 43 days · 22 km away
- 138,240 haIringaAugust 2016 · 37 days · 29 km away
- 75,347 haIringa20 July 2026 · 45 days · 30 km away
- 97,386 haIringa7 July 2019 · 26 days · 31 km away
- 113,063 haIringa19 August 2026 · 45 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Iringa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 August 2023 and 14 August 2023: 7 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 3,672 hectares (36.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Iringa (3,667 ha, 0.2 %); Chunya (29 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, class 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.