Iringa fire, September 2024 Iringa
The fire started on 5 September 2024 in Iringa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,397 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 29th largest in Iringa since 2016 (of 71 with a page). Number 19 in Tanzania in 2024, of 70.
- Burnt area
- 5,397ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 5 Sept 2024 – 7 Sept 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Sept
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 175
- in a single hotspot: 216 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.4GW
- 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
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,189 ha in 2016, 2,816 ha in 2017, 1,039 ha in 2018, 2,257 ha in 2019, 862 ha in 2020, 3,624 ha in 2021, 3,157 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,756 ha that had burned before.
- 3,379 ha Mbarali fire, September 2021 140,758 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,157 ha Mbarali fire, July 2023 7,702 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,816 ha Mbarali fire, July 2017 6,665 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,001 ha Mbarali fire, June 2019 7,231 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,967 ha Iringa fire, August 2016 138,240 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 256 ha Iringa fire, July 2019 26,840 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 221 ha Iringa fire, October 2016 16,584 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 110 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 started5,433 ha reached on 4 Sept0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Sept | 28.7 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Sept | 28.8 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Sept | 27.9 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Sept after | 28.7 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Sept after | 30.1 °C | 33 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Sept after | 30.7 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 12 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 27 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Sept after | 32.3 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 14 Sept after | 30.3 °C | 21 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 15 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Sept after | 29.6 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Sept after | 29.8 °C | 29 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 6 September 2024 the air beside the fire reached 52 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 175Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 140,758 haMbarali4 September 2021 · 45 days · 10 km away
- 138,240 haIringaAugust 2016 · 37 days · 14 km away
- 113,445 haIringaSeptember 2018 · 35 days · 25 km away
- 42,802 haIringa28 July 2023 · 43 days · 29 km away
- 54,511 haIringa28 July 2024 · 22 days · 30 km away
- 97,386 haIringa7 July 2019 · 26 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Iringa fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 September 2024 and 7 September 2024: 3 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 5,397 hectares (54.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Iringa (5,433 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 29 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.