Skip to content
worldfires
TZ · Tanzania · →

Mlele fire, 29 August 2018 Mlele

Out · last detection 3 Sept 2018, 11:46 UTC

The fire started on 29 August 2018 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,497 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 206th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 47 in Tanzania in 2018, of 72.

Burnt area
3,497ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
29 Aug 2018 – 2 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
29 Aug
2018
Heat detections
108
in a single hotspot: 73 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
845MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Aug2 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

293031123

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
42km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,716 ha in 2016, 1,804 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,873 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mlele where it started
    3,524 ha reached on 29 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)
29 Aug 26.6 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Aug 26.3 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
31 Aug 26.7 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Sept 27.4 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
2 Sept 27.5 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Sept after 28.1 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Sept after 27.4 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Sept after 27.8 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
6 Sept after 28.4 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Sept after 28.7 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Sept after 29.0 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
9 Sept after 30.1 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Sept after 28.3 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Sept after 28.1 °C 39 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Sept after 28.2 °C 37 % 35 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 · 22 Aug 2018
After · 9 Sept 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 · 108Every 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 29 August 2018 and 2 September 2018: 5 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 3,497 hectares (35.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mlele (3,524 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.5 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.