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Manyoni fire, 15 July 2020 Manyoni, Chunya

Out · last detection 24 Jul 2020, 11:08 UTC

The fire started on 15 July 2020 in Manyoni, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,867 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Singida since 2016 (of 124 with a page). Number 7 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.

Burnt area
15,867ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
15 Jul 2020 – 23 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
15 Jul
2020
Heat detections
588
in a single hotspot: 190 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
6.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Jul 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Jul23 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

15161718192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
55km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,650 ha in 2016, 6,494 ha in 2017, 8,865 ha in 2018, 4,212 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 14,430 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Manyoni where it started
    13,320 ha reached on 15 Jul
    0.5 %
  2. Chunya
    2,669 ha reached on 15 Jul
    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)
15 Jul 26.6 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Jul 24.9 °C 29 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jul 23.1 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Jul 23.8 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Jul 25.0 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Jul 24.6 °C 35 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Jul 25.2 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
22 Jul 27.9 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Jul 26.8 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Jul after 26.0 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jul after 25.6 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jul after 25.3 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Jul after 24.1 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Jul after 25.2 °C 37 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Jul after 26.4 °C 40 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Jul after 27.2 °C 36 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Jul after 27.5 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Aug after 27.4 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Aug after 25.5 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Jul 2020
After · 30 Jul 2020

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 · 588Every 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 15 July 2020 and 23 July 2020: 9 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 15,867 hectares (158.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Manyoni (13,320 ha, 0.5 %); Chunya (2,669 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.