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Mlele fire, 16 July 2020 Mlele

Out · last detection 27 Jul 2020, 11:52 UTC

The fire started on 16 July 2020 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,224 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 145th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 90 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.

Burnt area
4,224ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
16 Jul 2020 – 26 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Jul
2020
Heat detections
132
in a single hotspot: 99 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jul 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jul26 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

161718192021222324252627

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
52km/h · peak gust
34%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,895 ha in 2016, 2,539 ha in 2017, 2,191 ha in 2018, 2,175 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,839 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mlele where it started
    4,256 ha reached on 13 Jul
    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)
16 Jul 27.0 °C 41 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Jul 23.4 °C 39 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Jul 24.7 °C 39 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Jul 26.7 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jul 26.4 °C 37 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Jul 27.8 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
22 Jul 27.9 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Jul 28.0 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Jul 27.3 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jul 26.5 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Jul 27.4 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
27 Jul after 27.0 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Jul after 27.4 °C 38 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
29 Jul after 28.4 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Jul after 28.7 °C 38 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Jul after 29.7 °C 37 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Aug after 29.2 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Aug after 28.2 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Aug after 28.7 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Aug after 29.3 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Aug after 29.7 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jul 2020
After · 2 Aug 2020

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 · 132Every 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 16 July 2020 and 26 July 2020: 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 4,224 hectares (42.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mlele (4,256 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.0 °C, humidity dropped to 34 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, 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.