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Mlele fire, 17 August 2018 Mlele, Songwe

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2018, 10:49 UTC

The fire started on 17 August 2018 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,102 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 255th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 64 in Tanzania in 2018, of 72.

Burnt area
3,102ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
17 Aug 2018 – 20 Aug 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
17 Aug
2018
Heat detections
127
in a single hotspot: 51 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
621MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Aug 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Aug20 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
33km/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

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,854 ha in 2016, 1 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Mlele where it started
    2,152 ha reached on 17 Aug
    0.1 %
  2. Songwe
    973 ha reached on 17 Aug
    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)
17 Aug 24.8 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Aug 26.0 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Aug 25.1 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Aug 25.2 °C 33 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Aug after 25.5 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Aug after 26.7 °C 34 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Aug after 26.8 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Aug after 24.8 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Aug after 25.6 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Aug after 25.3 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Aug after 26.9 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
28 Aug after 26.6 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Aug after 25.6 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Aug after 25.0 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Aug 2018
After · 27 Aug 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 · 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 17 August 2018 and 20 August 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 3,102 hectares (31.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mlele (2,152 ha, 0.1 %); Songwe (973 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.0 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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.