Mbarali fire, October 2021 Mbarali
The fire started on 22 October 2021 in Mbarali, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,098 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 141th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 128 in Tanzania in 2021, of 135.
The power measured by the satellite is low (25.4 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
- 3,098ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 22 Oct 2021 – 27 Oct 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 22 Oct
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 97
- in a single hotspot: 25 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 743MW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 31 Oct.
This area had burned before
75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,192 ha in 2016, 362 ha in 2017, 1,598 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,338 ha that had burned before.
- 1,050 ha Mbarali fire, August 2016 3,792 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 973 ha Mbarali fire, August 2019 3,154 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 625 ha Mbarali fire, June 2019 4,028 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 65 ha Mbarali fire, August 2017 4,038 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mbarali where it started3,116 ha reached on 22 Oct0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Oct | 31.7 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Oct | 34.2 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 24 Oct | 35.4 °C | 22 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Oct | 34.1 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Oct | 33.0 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Oct | 33.4 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 28 Oct after | 33.0 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Oct after | 34.0 °C | 21 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Oct after | 33.1 °C | 28 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 31 Oct after | 31.8 °C | 36 % | 32 km/h | 1.2 mm | High 24 |
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.
Detections table · 97Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,766 haMbaraliAugust 2025 · 16 days · 9 km away
- 11,028 haMbarali16 September 2026 · 23 days · 20 km away
- 8,435 haMbarali19 September 2026 · 20 days · 22 km away
- 18,660 haMbarali6 July 2016 · 15 days · 25 km away
- 140,758 haMbarali4 September 2021 · 45 days · 39 km away
- 16,427 haMbarali6 October 2020 · 7 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mbarali fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 October 2021 and 27 October 2021: 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 3,098 hectares (31.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mbarali (3,116 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.