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Mlele fire, 21 June 2016 Mlele

Out · last detection 26 Jun 2016, 22:32 UTC

The fire started on 21 June 2016 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,874 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 168th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 97 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
3,874ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
21 Jun 2016 – 26 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Jun
2016
Heat detections
141
in a single hotspot: 73 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
855MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jun 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Jun26 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

212223242526

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
42km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 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

  1. Mlele where it started
    3,900 ha reached on 21 Jun
    0.1 %

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)
21 Jun 30.4 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Jun 29.8 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jun 28.3 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Jun 28.6 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Jun 28.6 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Jun 29.0 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jun after 29.4 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jun after 29.9 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Jun after 29.7 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Jun after 29.7 °C 22 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
1 Jul after 30.7 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Jul after 31.8 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Jul after 30.3 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Jul after 28.8 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Jul after 28.8 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Jul after 29.9 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Jun 2016
After · 3 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 · 141Every 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 Mlele fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 June 2016 and 26 June 2016: 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 3,874 hectares (38.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mlele (3,900 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.4 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.