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Meatu fire, 5 July 2016 Meatu, Itilima

Out · last detection 8 Jul 2016, 11:04 UTC

The fire started on 5 July 2016 in Meatu, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,224 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 30th largest in Simiyu since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 51 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.3 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
5,224ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
5 Jul 2016 – 7 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
5 Jul
2016
Heat detections
145
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
789MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Jul7 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

5678

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
35km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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

  1. Meatu where it started
    5,232 ha reached on 5 Jul
    0.6 %
  2. Itilima
    25 ha
    0.0 %

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)
5 Jul 26.5 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Jul 27.6 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
7 Jul 27.9 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
8 Jul after 26.1 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Jul after 26.2 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Jul after 26.7 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Jul after 24.7 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
12 Jul after 24.1 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Jul after 25.2 °C 36 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
14 Jul after 26.0 °C 37 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
15 Jul after 26.4 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Jul after 26.6 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
17 Jul after 27.2 °C 29 % 44 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.

Before · 28 Jun 2016
After · 14 Jul 2016

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 · 145Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Tanzania ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Meatu fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 July 2016 and 7 July 2016: 3 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 5,224 hectares (52.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Meatu (5,232 ha, 0.6 %); Itilima (25 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.9 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.