Mbarali fire, 28 August 2022 Mbarali
The fire started on 28 August 2022 in Mbarali, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,398 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 68th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 34 in Tanzania in 2022, of 71.
- Burnt area
- 4,398ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 28 Aug 2022 – 31 Aug 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 28 Aug
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 155
- in a single hotspot: 149 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.5GW
- 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
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,764 ha in 2016, 49 ha in 2017, 3,886 ha in 2019, 1,529 ha in 2020, 3,914 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,112 ha that had burned before.
- 2,579 ha Mbarali fire, August 2019 3,169 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,436 ha Mbarali fire, September 2021 3,516 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,324 ha Mbarali fire, September 2016 4,851 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,307 ha Mbarali fire, August 2019 7,542 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 602 ha Mbarali fire, December 2021 5,855 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 49 ha Mbarali fire, October 2017 5,181 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9 ha Mbarali fire, July 2016 18,660 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mbarali where it started4,426 ha reached on 28 Aug0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Aug | 30.0 °C | 24 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Aug | 30.4 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 30 Aug | 31.5 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 31 Aug | 29.3 °C | 28 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 1 Sept after | 28.3 °C | 28 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 2 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 22 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 3 Sept after | 31.5 °C | 17 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 4 Sept after | 31.8 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Sept after | 31.7 °C | 19 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 6 Sept after | 31.6 °C | 22 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 7 Sept after | 29.7 °C | 27 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 8 Sept after | 29.2 °C | 24 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 9 Sept after | 31.6 °C | 20 % | 51 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 10 Sept after | 31.3 °C | 23 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
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 · 155Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 7,542 haMbarali6 August 2019 · 14 days · 7 km away
- 5,855 haMbaraliDecember 2021 · 7 days · 7 km away
- 18,660 haMbarali6 July 2016 · 15 days · 16 km away
- 9,766 haMbaraliAugust 2025 · 16 days · 28 km away
- 11,028 haMbarali16 September 2026 · 23 days · 34 km away
- 6,367 haMbarali29 September 2021 · 8 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mbarali fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 August 2022 and 31 August 2022: 4 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 4,398 hectares (44.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mbarali (4,426 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.5 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, 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.