Skip to content
worldfires
TZ · Tanzania · →

Mlele fire, 19 June 2018 Mlele

Out · last detection 29 Jun 2018, 10:43 UTC

The fire started on 19 June 2018 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,377 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 49th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 10 in Tanzania in 2018, of 72.

Burnt area
8,377ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
19 Jun 2018 – 29 Jun 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Jun
2018
Heat detections
209
in a single hotspot: 55 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Jun 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jun29 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

1920212223242526272829

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
40km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 5,027 ha in 2016, 7,597 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,116 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mlele where it started
    8,435 ha reached on 19 Jun
    0.3 %

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)
19 Jun 29.3 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Jun 30.4 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
21 Jun 29.4 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Jun 30.6 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Jun 29.7 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Jun 31.3 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Jun 30.9 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Jun 29.7 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jun 30.0 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jun 29.7 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Jun 30.1 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Jun after 30.1 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Jul after 29.5 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Jul after 30.3 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Jul after 30.7 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Jul after 28.5 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
5 Jul after 27.2 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Jul after 27.8 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Jul after 29.3 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Jul after 28.7 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Jul after 29.3 °C 29 % 41 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 · 12 Jun 2018
After · 6 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 · 209Every 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 19 June 2018 and 29 June 2018: 11 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 8,377 hectares (83.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mlele (8,435 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.3 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 40 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.