Manyoni fire, 18 July 2026 Manyoni
The fire started on 18 July 2026 in Manyoni, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,979 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 24th largest in Singida since 2016 (of 124 with a page). Number 45 in Tanzania in 2026, of 200.
The power measured by the satellite is low (26.3 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
- 6,979ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 18 Jul 2026 – 5 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 131
- in a single hotspot: 26 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 750MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,833 ha in 2016, 199 ha in 2017, 1,732 ha in 2018, 479 ha in 2019, 883 ha in 2020, 71 ha in 2022, 1,203 ha in 2023, 1,519 ha in 2024, 6 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,915 ha that had burned before.
- 3,685 ha Chunya fire, July 2016 59,818 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 479 ha Manyoni fire, June 2019 6,122 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 284 ha Manyoni fire, August 2018 7,500 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 199 ha Manyoni fire, June 2017 6,764 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 191 ha Manyoni fire, August 2018 6,411 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 54 ha Manyoni fire, July 2022 3,695 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Manyoni where it started7,033 ha reached on 18 Jul0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jul | 27.9 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Jul | 27.9 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Jul | 29.4 °C | 31 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 21 Jul | 30.4 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Jul | 29.5 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 23 Jul | 28.6 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Jul | 28.2 °C | 29 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Jul | 27.7 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Jul | 27.9 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Jul | 27.6 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Jul | 28.0 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Jul | 27.7 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Jul | 27.8 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 31 Jul | 27.9 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Aug | 26.8 °C | 32 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 2 Aug | 27.1 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 3 Aug | 26.2 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 4 Aug | 26.3 °C | 40 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 5 Aug | 26.9 °C | 40 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 35 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Aug after | 27.7 °C | 38 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 8 Aug after | 26.9 °C | 35 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 9 Aug after | 26.8 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Aug after | 28.0 °C | 28 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 11 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 12 Aug after | 28.7 °C | 18 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 26 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 14 Aug after | 28.0 °C | 30 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 15 Aug after | 26.6 °C | 34 % | 37 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.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 27 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 32 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 22: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 131Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 22,710 haManyoni18 July 2026 · 13 days · 16 km away
- 21,814 haManyoni25 June 2017 · 7 days · 18 km away
- 15,867 haManyoni15 July 2020 · 9 days · 19 km away
- 59,818 haChunya9 July 2016 · 34 days · 27 km away
- 21,611 haManyoni9 August 2026 · 23 days · 32 km away
- 18,465 haManyoni10 July 2019 · 11 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Manyoni fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2026 and 5 August 2026: 19 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 6,979 hectares (69.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Manyoni (7,033 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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
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.