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Iringa fire, 10 August 2023 Iringa, Chunya

Out · last detection 18 Aug 2023, 11:09 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2023 in Iringa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,690 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 35th largest in Iringa since 2016 (of 71 with a page). Number 18 in Tanzania in 2023, of 44.

Burnt area
4,690ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
10 Aug 2023 – 18 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
10 Aug
2023
Heat detections
163
in a single hotspot: 54 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug18 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415161718

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
38km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

98% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,083 ha in 2016, 3,431 ha in 2017, 1,921 ha in 2018, 998 ha in 2019, 1,603 ha in 2020, 1,336 ha in 2021, 1,800 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,583 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Iringa where it started
    2,371 ha reached on 9 Aug
    0.1 %
  2. Chunya
    2,348 ha reached on 10 Aug
    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)
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 29.5 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Aug 29.3 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Aug 28.7 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Aug 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
25 Aug after 29.0 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Aug after 30.2 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Aug after 30.5 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
28 Aug after 27.3 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2023
After · 25 Aug 2023

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 · 163Every 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 10 August 2023 and 18 August 2023: 9 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 4,690 hectares (46.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Iringa (2,371 ha, 0.1 %); Chunya (2,348 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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
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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.