Mbarali fire, July 2025 Mbarali
The fire started on 26 July 2025 in Mbarali, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,849 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 86th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 100 in Tanzania in 2025, of 161.
- Burnt area
- 3,849ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 9days
- 26 Jul 2025 – 3 Aug 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 26 Jul
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 191
- in a single hotspot: 60 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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
85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 288 ha in 2016, 1,601 ha in 2017, 1,208 ha in 2019, 340 ha in 2020, 1,649 ha in 2021, 182 ha in 2022, 1,447 ha in 2023, 364 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,264 ha that had burned before.
- 1,601 ha Mbarali fire, September 2017 3,207 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 235 ha Mbarali fire, September 2021 6,367 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 182 ha Mbarali fire, September 2022 4,079 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 96 ha Mbarali fire, August 2016 4,848 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mbarali where it started3,871 ha reached on 25 Jul0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26 Jul | 29.0 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Jul | 28.1 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 28 Jul | 26.7 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 29 Jul | 26.9 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 30 Jul | 27.0 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 31 Jul | 27.1 °C | 31 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 1 Aug | 27.9 °C | 31 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 2 Aug | 27.6 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 3 Aug | 26.1 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Aug after | 26.8 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 5 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 21 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 6 Aug after | 27.8 °C | 31 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Aug after | 28.6 °C | 32 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 8 Aug after | 29.0 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 9 Aug after | 27.9 °C | 30 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 10 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 11 Aug after | 29.2 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 12 Aug after | 28.6 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Aug after | 27.9 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 24 July 2025 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 15: 1.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 191Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 17,501 haIringa6 September 2025 · 17 days · 25 km away
- 140,758 haMbarali4 September 2021 · 45 days · 28 km away
- 23,926 haIringa15 September 2026 · 19 days · 29 km away
- 16,584 haIringaOctober 2016 · 22 days · 34 km away
- 18,155 haIringa16 July 2019 · 17 days · 36 km away
- 18,660 haMbarali6 July 2016 · 15 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mbarali fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 26 July 2025 and 3 August 2025: 9 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 3,849 hectares (38.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mbarali (3,871 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.0 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 40 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.