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Manyoni fire, September 2017 Manyoni

Out · last detection 24 Sept 2017, 10:56 UTC

The fire started on 16 September 2017 in Manyoni, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,110 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 70th largest in Singida since 2016 (of 124 with a page). Number 55 in Tanzania in 2017, of 104.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.6 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
4,110ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
16 Sept 2017 – 23 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Sept
2017
Heat detections
151
in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
667MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Sept23 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
54km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,842 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Manyoni where it started
    4,140 ha reached on 16 Sept
    0.1 %

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)
16 Sept 30.1 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Sept 31.0 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 Sept 30.1 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
19 Sept 29.3 °C 26 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Sept 29.6 °C 25 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
21 Sept 28.7 °C 21 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Sept 28.4 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Sept 28.2 °C 30 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
24 Sept after 28.4 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
25 Sept after 28.8 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
26 Sept after 28.3 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Sept after 28.9 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Sept after 28.3 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
29 Sept after 29.2 °C 17 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
30 Sept after 30.0 °C 19 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
1 Oct after 29.4 °C 25 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Oct after 29.7 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
3 Oct after 31.0 °C 26 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Sept 2017
After · 30 Sept 2017

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 · 151Every 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 Manyoni fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 September 2017 and 23 September 2017: 8 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 4,110 hectares (41.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Manyoni (4,140 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 51, class Extreme.
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.