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Iringa fire, 15 September 2023 Iringa, Mbarali

Out · last detection 5 Oct 2023, 23:53 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2023 in Iringa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,417 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 20th largest in Iringa since 2016 (of 71 with a page). Number 4 in Tanzania in 2023, of 44.

Burnt area
8,417ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
21days
15 Sept 2023 – 5 Oct 2023
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Sept
2023
Heat detections
418
in a single hotspot: 82 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Oct 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept5 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1516171819202122232425262728293012345

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

32°high
45km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,596 ha in 2016, 912 ha in 2017, 125 ha in 2018, 807 ha in 2019, 2,535 ha in 2020, 1,323 ha in 2021, 84 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,309 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Iringa where it started
    5,678 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.3 %
  2. Mbarali
    2,792 ha reached on 27 Sept
    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)
15 Sept 28.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Sept 29.4 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Sept 30.3 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Sept 29.7 °C 26 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Sept 28.2 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Sept 29.7 °C 25 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Sept 30.3 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Sept 28.0 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Sept 29.4 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Sept 28.7 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Sept 29.7 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Sept 30.1 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Sept 29.7 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Sept 28.8 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Sept 29.2 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Sept 29.7 °C 27 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Oct 30.6 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Oct 31.5 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
3 Oct 28.6 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Oct 28.2 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Oct 28.7 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Oct after 27.9 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.6 mm High 30
7 Oct after 27.7 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
8 Oct after 30.5 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Oct after 31.6 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Oct after 30.4 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Oct after 30.5 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Oct after 30.0 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Oct after 32.7 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Oct after 33.8 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Oct after 33.1 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2023
After · 12 Oct 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 · 418Every 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 15 September 2023 and 5 October 2023: 21 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 8,417 hectares (84.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Iringa (5,678 ha, 0.3 %); Mbarali (2,792 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
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.