Skip to content
worldfires
TZ · Tanzania · →

Mlele fire, 21 September 2017 Mlele

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2017, 11:40 UTC

The fire started on 21 September 2017 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,071 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 157th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 56 in Tanzania in 2017, of 104.

Burnt area
4,071ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
21 Sept 2017 – 27 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
21 Sept
2017
Heat detections
127
in a single hotspot: 82 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
798MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

212223242527

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
43km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,710 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mlele where it started
    4,094 ha reached on 21 Sept
    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 Sept 32.6 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Sept 32.0 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
23 Sept 32.0 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Sept 32.4 °C 23 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Sept 32.6 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 Sept 31.2 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
27 Sept 32.6 °C 35 % 30 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 17
28 Sept after 31.6 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Sept after 32.0 °C 21 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
30 Sept after 33.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Oct after 32.2 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
2 Oct after 33.3 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
3 Oct after 34.5 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Oct after 33.7 °C 25 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Oct after 32.8 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Oct after 34.0 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Oct after 33.6 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Sept 2017
After · 4 Oct 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 · 127Every 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 September 2017 and 27 September 2017: 7 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 4,071 hectares (40.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mlele (4,094 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, 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.