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Mlele fire, 16 July 2022 Mlele, Mpanda

Out · last detection 26 Jul 2022, 10:43 UTC

The fire started on 16 July 2022 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,659 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 128th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 30 in Tanzania in 2022, of 71.

Burnt area
4,659ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
16 Jul 2022 – 26 Jul 2022
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
16 Jul
2022
Heat detections
159
in a single hotspot: 77 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
931MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jul 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jul26 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920212223242526

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
45km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,135 ha in 2016, 472 ha in 2017, 1,217 ha in 2018, 1,739 ha in 2019, 2,132 ha in 2020, 1,040 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,717 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mlele where it started
    3,333 ha reached on 16 Jul
    0.1 %
  2. Mpanda
    1,360 ha reached on 16 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 29.6 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jul 28.3 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Jul 28.6 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Jul 28.4 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
20 Jul 28.9 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
21 Jul 28.6 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Jul 28.6 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Jul 29.1 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
24 Jul 30.6 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Jul 30.5 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Jul 29.8 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jul after 29.8 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jul after 29.7 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Jul after 30.3 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Jul after 30.1 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Jul after 31.6 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
1 Aug after 30.4 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 Aug after 29.9 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Aug after 29.6 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Aug after 29.7 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 Aug after 29.3 °C 26 % 40 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 · 9 Jul 2022
After · 2 Aug 2022

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 · 159Every 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 2022 and 26 July 2022: 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 4,659 hectares (46.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mlele (3,333 ha, 0.1 %); Mpanda (1,360 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.6 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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
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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.