Manyoni fire, 20 June 2017 Manyoni
The fire started on 20 June 2017 in Manyoni, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,375 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 101th largest in Singida since 2016 (of 124 with a page). Number 78 in Tanzania in 2017, of 104.
The power measured by the satellite is low (18.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,375ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 20 Jun 2017 – 25 Jun 2017
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 20 Jun
- 2017
- Heat detections
- 121
- in a single hotspot: 19 MW
- Danger at start
- 37
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 404MW
- 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 38 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
-
Manyoni where it started3,399 ha reached on 20 Jun0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Jun | 27.5 °C | 27 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 Jun | 27.2 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Jun | 27.5 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Jun | 28.0 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Jun | 27.8 °C | 27 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 25 Jun | 24.7 °C | 40 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Jun after | 28.0 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Jun after | 26.8 °C | 29 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Jun after | 25.9 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Jun after | 27.0 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 30 Jun after | 27.3 °C | 29 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 1 Jul after | 26.9 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 2 Jul after | 27.4 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 3 Jul after | 27.4 °C | 31 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 4 Jul after | 26.7 °C | 33 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Jul after | 26.5 °C | 33 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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.
Detections table · 121Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,849 haManyoni10 October 2026 · 7 days · 16 km away
- 11,766 haManyoni5 October 2026 · 11 days · 31 km away
- 7,516 haManyoni28 August 2020 · 9 days · 31 km away
- 18,465 haManyoni10 July 2019 · 11 days · 35 km away
- 8,345 haManyoni5 September 2021 · 11 days · 35 km away
- 9,405 haManyoni27 July 2017 · 7 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Manyoni fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 June 2017 and 25 June 2017: 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 3,375 hectares (33.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Manyoni (3,399 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.0 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 42 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
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.