How long did the Mbinga fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 September 2026 to 16 October 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 September 2026 to 9 October 2026.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,057 hectares (50.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Mbinga (5,087 ha, 1.0 %).

Is the Mbinga fire still active?

No fire detections since 17 Oct 2026, 11:45 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 66 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.

TZ · Tanzania · 2026-09-27 → 2026-10-16

Mbinga fire, 27 September 2026 Mbinga

Out · last detection 17 Oct 2026, 11:45 UTC

The fire started on 27 September 2026 in Mbinga, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,057 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 26th largest in Ruvuma since 2016 (of 90 with a page). Number 71 in Tanzania in 2026, of 196.

Burnt area: 5,057ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 20days; 27 Sept 2026 – 16 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 27 Sept; 2026
Heat detections: 98; in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start: 39; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 800MW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 27 Sept16 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

27293013456789101314151617

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high

66km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone 14 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

Mbinga where it started

5,087 ha reached on 27 Sept

1.0 %

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 Sept	32.2 °C	29 %	53 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
28 Sept	32.2 °C	30 %	57 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
29 Sept	31.4 °C	32 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
30 Sept	30.3 °C	35 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
1 Oct	29.8 °C	37 %	39 km/h	1.6 mm	Moderate 21
2 Oct	29.8 °C	41 %	50 km/h	1.4 mm	Moderate 19
3 Oct	29.7 °C	39 %	52 km/h	1.0 mm	High 25
4 Oct	30.7 °C	30 %	59 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
5 Oct	30.6 °C	40 %	50 km/h	0.4 mm	High 36
6 Oct	32.5 °C	29 %	52 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
7 Oct	31.9 °C	34 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
8 Oct	33.1 °C	27 %	54 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
9 Oct	33.4 °C	24 %	55 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
10 Oct	32.6 °C	31 %	48 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 41
11 Oct	31.9 °C	35 %	52 km/h	0.4 mm	Very high 41
12 Oct	31.9 °C	33 %	48 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 39
13 Oct	31.9 °C	29 %	58 km/h	0.9 mm	Very high 39
14 Oct	31.0 °C	35 %	64 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 40
15 Oct	30.8 °C	30 %	66 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 42
16 Oct	31.1 °C	28 %	60 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
17 Oct after	31.1 °C	29 %	61 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
18 Oct after	31.3 °C	32 %	62 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 20 Sept 2026

After · 23 Oct 2026

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 9 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 54 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 24: 1.6 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak54 µg/m³

Days over the guideline7 days

PM1055 µg/m³

Optical depth0.54

WHO 15

2526272829301234567891011121314151617

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 98Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Tanzania ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Mbinga fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 27 September 2026 to 16 October 2026 (20 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 September 2026 to 9 October 2026.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,057 hectares (50.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Mbinga (5,087 ha, 1.0 %).
Is the Mbinga fire still active?: No fire detections since 17 Oct 2026, 11:45 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 33.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 66 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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.

Where it burned