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Mbarali fire, 17 September 2016 Mbarali

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2016, 23:28 UTC

The fire started on 17 September 2016 in Mbarali, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,781 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 57th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 60 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
4,781ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
17 Sept 2016 – 26 Sept 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 Sept
2016
Heat detections
143
in a single hotspot: 45 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Sept26 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
47km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mbarali where it started
    4,808 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.3 %

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)
17 Sept 28.8 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Sept 29.1 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Sept 27.1 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Sept 26.4 °C 28 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Sept 26.8 °C 26 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Sept 27.7 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Sept 28.4 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Sept 28.2 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Sept 27.7 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Sept 28.4 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Sept after 29.3 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Sept after 28.9 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Sept after 27.6 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Sept after 27.7 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 Oct after 28.3 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Oct after 29.7 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Oct after 29.9 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.3 mm High 36
4 Oct after 28.7 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
5 Oct after 29.4 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Oct after 29.3 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Sept 2016
After · 3 Oct 2016

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 · 143Every 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 Mbarali fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 September 2016 and 26 September 2016: 10 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 4,781 hectares (47.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mbarali (4,808 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.1 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.