Mbarali fire, July 2023 Iringa, Mbarali
The fire started on 27 July 2023 in Mbarali, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,702 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 22th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 5 in Tanzania in 2023, of 44.
- Burnt area
- 7,702ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 27 Jul 2023 – 1 Aug 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Jul
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 239
- in a single hotspot: 119 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.7GW
- 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 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,119 ha in 2016, 4,362 ha in 2017, 1,412 ha in 2018, 5,144 ha in 2019, 1,628 ha in 2020, 6,221 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,717 ha that had burned before.
- 5,776 ha Mbarali fire, September 2021 140,758 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,880 ha Iringa fire, August 2016 138,240 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,392 ha Mbarali fire, June 2019 7,231 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,353 ha Mbarali fire, July 2017 6,665 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 752 ha Iringa fire, July 2019 26,840 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 369 ha Iringa fire, September 2018 113,445 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 239 ha Iringa fire, October 2016 16,584 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 9 ha Mbarali fire, September 2017 3,785 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
6,555 ha reached on 27 Jul0.4 %
-
Mbarali where it started1,197 ha reached on 25 Jul0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Jul | 26.5 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Jul | 27.1 °C | 31 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 29 Jul | 27.9 °C | 34 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 30 Jul | 29.5 °C | 29 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 31 Jul | 29.2 °C | 26 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 1 Aug | 28.3 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 2 Aug after | 25.8 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 34 |
| 3 Aug after | 27.7 °C | 31 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Aug after | 26.6 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Aug after | 25.3 °C | 40 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Aug after | 25.7 °C | 37 % | 28 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 28 |
| 8 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 27 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 25 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 10 Aug after | 26.3 °C | 31 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Aug after | 27.9 °C | 30 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
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 · 239Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 140,758 haMbarali4 September 2021 · 45 days · 8 km away
- 138,240 haIringaAugust 2016 · 37 days · 16 km away
- 113,445 haIringaSeptember 2018 · 35 days · 27 km away
- 54,511 haIringa28 July 2024 · 22 days · 31 km away
- 42,802 haIringa28 July 2023 · 43 days · 31 km away
- 97,386 haIringa7 July 2019 · 26 days · 33 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mbarali fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 July 2023 and 1 August 2023: 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 7,702 hectares (77.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Iringa (6,555 ha, 0.4 %); Mbarali (1,197 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.