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Kaliua fire, August 2016 Kaliua

Out · last detection 26 Aug 2016, 23:28 UTC

The fire started on 15 August 2016 in Kaliua, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,796 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2th largest in Tabora since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 15 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
10,796ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
15 Aug 2016 – 25 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Aug
2016
Heat detections
320
in a single hotspot: 126 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
3.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Aug25 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
47km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Kaliua where it started
    10,881 ha reached on 15 Aug
    0.7 %

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 Aug 30.3 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Aug 30.4 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Aug 30.3 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
18 Aug 31.9 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Aug 32.0 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Aug 32.0 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Aug 33.5 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Aug 34.4 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Aug 34.7 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Aug 30.5 °C 26 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Aug 30.4 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Aug after 31.5 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Aug after 30.7 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Aug after 30.5 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Aug after 30.8 °C 18 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Aug after 30.8 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Aug after 31.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Sept after 31.1 °C 22 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Sept after 30.9 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Sept after 30.2 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Sept after 31.9 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Aug 2016
After · 1 Sept 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 · 320Every 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 Kaliua fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 August 2016 and 25 August 2016: 11 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 10,796 hectares (108.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kaliua (10,881 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very 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
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.