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Manyoni fire, 21 July 2019 Manyoni

Out · last detection 24 Jul 2019, 23:15 UTC

The fire started on 21 July 2019 in Manyoni, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,242 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 111th largest in Singida since 2016 (of 124 with a page). Number 104 in Tanzania in 2019, of 123.

The power measured by the satellite is low (19.5 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
3,242ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
21 Jul 2019 – 24 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Jul
2019
Heat detections
103
in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start
38
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
560MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jul24 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

21222324

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
45km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 773 ha in 2016, 1,528 ha in 2017, 311 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,963 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Manyoni where it started
    3,265 ha reached on 21 Jul
    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)
21 Jul 29.5 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Jul 26.5 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Jul 26.1 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Jul 28.6 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jul after 29.6 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Jul after 26.7 °C 25 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
27 Jul after 25.8 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Jul after 25.9 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Jul after 27.9 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Jul after 26.8 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Jul after 26.0 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Aug after 26.9 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Aug after 26.5 °C 41 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Aug after 27.5 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jul 2019
After · 31 Jul 2019

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 · 103Every 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 21 July 2019 and 24 July 2019: 4 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 3,242 hectares (32.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Manyoni (3,265 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.