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Mbarali fire, 7 October 2016 Mbarali

Out · last detection 13 Oct 2016, 10:43 UTC

The fire started on 7 October 2016 in Mbarali, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,096 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 142th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 149 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
3,096ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
7 Oct 2016 – 13 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
7 Oct
2016
Heat detections
86
in a single hotspot: 89 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Oct13 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

78910111213

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
53km/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
    3,117 ha reached on 7 Oct
    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)
7 Oct 33.7 °C 27 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Oct 33.4 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Oct 33.5 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Oct 32.8 °C 27 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Oct 32.9 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Oct 32.1 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Oct 32.5 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
14 Oct after 31.9 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Oct after 32.7 °C 26 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Oct after 32.6 °C 27 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
17 Oct after 33.3 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Oct after 32.8 °C 27 % 52 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 55
19 Oct after 31.7 °C 22 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Oct after 31.4 °C 23 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Oct after 31.0 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
22 Oct after 33.1 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Oct after 33.6 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Sept 2016
After · 20 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 · 86Every 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 7 October 2016 and 13 October 2016: 7 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 3,096 hectares (31.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mbarali (3,117 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
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.