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Liwale fire, 14 October 2016 Liwale

Out · last detection 25 Oct 2016, 23:04 UTC

The fire started on 14 October 2016 in Liwale, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,258 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 18th largest in Lindi since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 48 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
5,258ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
14 Oct 2016 – 25 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Oct
2016
Heat detections
173
in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
922MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Oct25 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

141516171819202122232425

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
36km/h · peak gust
23%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. Liwale where it started
    5,305 ha reached on 14 Oct
    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)
14 Oct 32.2 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Oct 31.4 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Oct 30.1 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Oct 30.3 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Oct 31.4 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Oct 29.7 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Oct 31.7 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Oct 31.9 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
22 Oct 31.5 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Oct 31.5 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Oct 31.2 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Oct 31.4 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Oct after 31.0 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Oct after 32.0 °C 27 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Oct after 31.5 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Oct after 31.1 °C 39 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Oct after 33.2 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Oct after 34.5 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Nov after 33.5 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Nov after 34.8 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Nov after 33.0 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Nov after 32.8 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Oct 2016
After · 1 Nov 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 · 173Every 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 Liwale fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 October 2016 and 25 October 2016: 12 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 5,258 hectares (52.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Liwale (5,305 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.2 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.