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Itilima fire, 11 July 2016 Itilima

Out · last detection 16 Jul 2016, 10:13 UTC

The fire started on 11 July 2016 in Itilima, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,194 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 42th largest in Simiyu since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 82 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
4,194ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
11 Jul 2016 – 16 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
11 Jul
2016
Heat detections
110
in a single hotspot: 105 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
829MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jul16 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1112131416

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
37km/h · peak gust
36%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Itilima where it started
    4,222 ha reached on 7 Jul
    0.9 %

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)
11 Jul 24.9 °C 39 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Jul 24.2 °C 38 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Jul 25.4 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Jul 25.9 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Jul 26.1 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Jul 26.5 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Jul after 27.2 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Jul after 27.0 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jul after 27.9 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Jul after 28.1 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Jul after 27.3 °C 35 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Jul after 27.4 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Jul after 26.8 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Jul after 28.2 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Jul after 28.8 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jul after 28.0 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Jul 2016
After · 23 Jul 2016

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 · 110Every 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 Itilima fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 July 2016 and 16 July 2016: 6 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 4,194 hectares (41.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Itilima (4,222 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.5 °C, humidity dropped to 36 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.