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Manyoni fire, 26 July 2020 Manyoni

Out · last detection 31 Jul 2020, 10:36 UTC

The fire started on 26 July 2020 in Manyoni, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,420 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 98th largest in Singida since 2016 (of 124 with a page). Number 147 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.6 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
3,420ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
26 Jul 2020 – 31 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
26 Jul
2020
Heat detections
96
in a single hotspot: 17 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
373MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Jul 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jul31 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

262728293031

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
34km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,203 ha in 2016, 165 ha in 2017, 958 ha in 2018, 278 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,859 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Manyoni where it started
    3,446 ha reached on 26 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)
26 Jul 25.6 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Jul 26.2 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jul 26.5 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Jul 26.8 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Jul 27.8 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Jul 28.0 °C 39 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Aug after 27.5 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Aug after 26.2 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Aug after 27.3 °C 31 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Aug after 27.2 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Aug after 28.0 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Aug after 29.5 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Aug after 29.6 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Aug after 27.4 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Aug after 26.8 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Aug after 27.4 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jul 2020
After · 7 Aug 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 · 96Every 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 26 July 2020 and 31 July 2020: 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 3,420 hectares (34.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Manyoni (3,446 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.0 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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.