Mlele fire, 9 September 2022 Mlele
The fire started on 9 September 2022 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,689 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 14th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 4 in Tanzania in 2022, of 71.
- Burnt area
- 14,689ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 9 Sept 2022 – 27 Sept 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 9 Sept
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 451
- in a single hotspot: 67 MW
- Danger at start
- 31
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.0GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
95% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8,627 ha in 2016, 7,312 ha in 2017, 3,161 ha in 2018, 53 ha in 2019, 3,424 ha in 2020, 3,349 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 13,967 ha that had burned before.
- 7,048 ha Mlele fire, August 2017 28,157 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,905 ha Mlele fire, August 2016 50,151 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,116 ha Mlele fire, August 2021 4,112 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 830 ha Mlele fire, September 2020 9,073 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 202 ha Mlele fire, June 2016 34,561 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 157 ha Mlele fire, July 2021 6,460 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 69 ha Mlele fire, August 2020 3,147 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 11 ha Mlele fire, October 2021 7,669 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mlele where it started14,808 ha reached on 9 Sept0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Sept | 27.7 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 10 Sept | 29.5 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 11 Sept | 29.3 °C | 35 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Sept | 29.9 °C | 38 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 13 Sept | 29.7 °C | 34 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Sept | 29.4 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 15 Sept | 28.9 °C | 32 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 16 Sept | 29.9 °C | 31 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 17 Sept | 29.6 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 18 Sept | 29.9 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 19 Sept | 30.7 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 20 Sept | 30.4 °C | 34 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 21 Sept | 30.2 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 22 Sept | 30.0 °C | 36 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 23 Sept | 30.5 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Sept | 30.4 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 25 Sept | 30.0 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Sept | 31.2 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 27 Sept | 30.5 °C | 32 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 28 Sept after | 30.0 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 29 Sept after | 30.9 °C | 27 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 30 Sept after | 30.8 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 1 Oct after | 31.5 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 2 Oct after | 31.7 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 3 Oct after | 31.2 °C | 24 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 4 Oct after | 31.2 °C | 25 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 5 Oct after | 31.9 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 6 Oct after | 31.1 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 7 Oct after | 30.5 °C | 25 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
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 · 451Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 21,840 haMlele12 September 2025 · 26 days · 4 km away
- 28,157 haMlele28 August 2017 · 19 days · 11 km away
- 34,561 haMlele28 June 2016 · 25 days · 12 km away
- 20,520 haMlele17 June 2017 · 13 days · 14 km away
- 12,919 haMlele10 July 2017 · 15 days · 14 km away
- 50,151 haMlele15 August 2016 · 43 days · 16 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mlele fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 September 2022 and 27 September 2022: 19 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 14,689 hectares (146.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mlele (14,808 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 36 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
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.