Mbarali fire, December 2021 Mbarali
The fire started on 23 December 2021 in Mbarali, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,855 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 31th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 45 in Tanzania in 2021, of 135.
- Burnt area
- 5,855ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 23 Dec 2021 – 29 Dec 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 23 Dec
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 172
- in a single hotspot: 63 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.3GW
- 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 4 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 11.8 mm on 31 Dec.
This area had burned before
68% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 358 ha in 2016, 3,883 ha in 2017, 2,591 ha in 2019, 307 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,977 ha that had burned before.
- 3,234 ha Mbarali fire, October 2017 5,181 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,934 ha Mbarali fire, October 2019 3,390 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 431 ha Mbarali fire, August 2019 3,169 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 15 ha Mbarali fire, August 2019 7,542 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mbarali where it started5,893 ha reached on 23 Dec0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Dec | 35.7 °C | 20 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 24 Dec | 36.5 °C | 21 % | 35 km/h | 0.5 mm | High 31 |
| 25 Dec | 36.5 °C | 15 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 26 Dec | 37.0 °C | 17 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 27 Dec | 34.1 °C | 23 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Dec | 36.0 °C | 23 % | 40 km/h | 1.6 mm | High 27 |
| 29 Dec | 37.1 °C | 14 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 30 Dec after | 36.4 °C | 22 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 31 Dec after | 32.3 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 11.8 mm | Low 5 |
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 · 172Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mbarali fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 December 2021 and 29 December 2021: 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 5,855 hectares (58.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mbarali (5,893 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 44 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.