Mlele fire, 18 July 2019 Mlele
The fire started on 18 July 2019 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,319 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 75th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 41 in Tanzania in 2019, of 123.
- Burnt area
- 6,319ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 18 Jul 2019 – 21 Jul 2019
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 191
- in a single hotspot: 254 MW
- Danger at start
- 41
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.6GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 59 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,734 ha in 2016, 4,396 ha in 2017, 2,970 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,097 ha that had burned before.
- 3,106 ha Mlele fire, July 2017 6,308 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,667 ha Mlele fire, June 2018 8,377 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,319 ha Mlele fire, October 2016 24,580 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 391 ha Mlele fire, May 2016 3,021 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 222 ha Mlele fire, May 2016 5,504 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 212 ha Mlele fire, July 2017 4,820 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 101 ha Mlele fire, August 2017 5,089 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 28 ha Mlele fire, June 2017 6,510 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mlele where it started6,362 ha reached on 18 Jul0.2 %
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 | 29.5 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 19 Jul | 30.2 °C | 29 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 20 Jul | 31.8 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 Jul | 33.5 °C | 21 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 22 Jul after | 30.5 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 23 Jul after | 31.1 °C | 22 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 24 Jul after | 33.0 °C | 18 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Jul after | 33.7 °C | 14 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 26 Jul after | 31.5 °C | 19 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 27 Jul after | 30.8 °C | 20 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 28 Jul after | 30.1 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Jul after | 31.4 °C | 24 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 30 Jul after | 32.7 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 31 Jul after | 30.9 °C | 29 % | 35 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.
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 · 191Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mlele fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2019 and 21 July 2019: 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 6,319 hectares (63.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mlele (6,362 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.5 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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
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.