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Meatu fire, July 2018 Meatu

Out · last detection 18 Jul 2018, 11:28 UTC

The fire started on 14 July 2018 in Meatu, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,510 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 56th largest in Simiyu since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 46 in Tanzania in 2018, of 72.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.5 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
3,510ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
14 Jul 2018 – 17 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Jul
2018
Heat detections
96
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
629MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jul17 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718

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
45km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 58 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,653 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Meatu where it started
    3,532 ha reached on 14 Jul
    0.4 %

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)
14 Jul 27.5 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Jul 26.4 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Jul 26.1 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Jul 26.4 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Jul after 25.8 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Jul after 26.2 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Jul after 27.2 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Jul after 26.5 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Jul after 27.1 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Jul after 26.3 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Jul after 25.0 °C 34 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Jul after 25.3 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Jul after 23.7 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Jul after 26.3 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Jul 2018
After · 24 Jul 2018

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 · 96Every 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 14 July 2018 and 17 July 2018: 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 3,510 hectares (35.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Meatu (3,532 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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
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.