Skip to content
worldfires
TZ · Tanzania · →

Manyoni fire, 22 July 2019 Manyoni, Iringa

Out · last detection 25 Jul 2019, 22:56 UTC

The fire started on 22 July 2019 in Manyoni, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,617 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 28th largest in Singida since 2016 (of 124 with a page). Number 37 in Tanzania in 2019, of 123.

Burnt area
6,617ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
22 Jul 2019 – 25 Jul 2019
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
22 Jul
2019
Heat detections
166
in a single hotspot: 164 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Jul 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jul25 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

22232425

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
42km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,103 ha in 2016, 4,519 ha in 2017, 3,845 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,180 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Manyoni where it started
    6,526 ha reached on 22 Jul
    0.2 %
  2. Iringa
    146 ha
    0.0 %

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)
22 Jul 27.2 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Jul 27.1 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jul 29.7 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jul 30.9 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jul after 27.5 °C 23 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jul after 26.7 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jul after 26.3 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Jul after 28.3 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Jul after 28.2 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
31 Jul after 26.9 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Aug after 28.6 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Aug after 28.1 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Aug after 29.2 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Aug after 29.5 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jul 2019
After · 1 Aug 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 · 166Every 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 22 July 2019 and 25 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 6,617 hectares (66.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Manyoni (6,526 ha, 0.2 %); Iringa (146 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.