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Mlele fire, 18 July 2017 Mlele

Out · last detection 27 Jul 2017, 23:46 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2017 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,258 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 234th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 83 in Tanzania in 2017, of 104.

The power measured by the satellite is low (19.3 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
3,258ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
18 Jul 2017 – 27 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Jul
2017
Heat detections
126
in a single hotspot: 19 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
417MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul27 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
45km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

36% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,189 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mlele where it started
    3,283 ha reached on 18 Jul
    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)
18 Jul 30.0 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Jul 30.2 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Jul 31.1 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Jul 30.6 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
22 Jul 30.5 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jul 31.2 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Jul 29.9 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jul 28.7 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jul 29.5 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
27 Jul 29.2 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jul after 28.7 °C 35 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Jul after 29.0 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
30 Jul after 29.5 °C 30 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jul after 29.4 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Aug after 29.7 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Aug after 30.0 °C 36 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Aug after 28.4 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Aug after 29.4 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Aug after 30.7 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Aug after 29.8 °C 33 % 38 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 · 11 Jul 2017
After · 3 Aug 2017

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 · 126Every 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 18 July 2017 and 27 July 2017: 10 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 3,258 hectares (32.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mlele (3,283 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.