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Mlele fire, 10 August 2023 Mlele

Out · last detection 21 Aug 2023, 11:54 UTC

The fire started on 10 August 2023 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,584 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 196th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 32 in Tanzania in 2023, of 44.

Burnt area
3,584ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
10 Aug 2023 – 21 Aug 2023
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
10 Aug
2023
Heat detections
102
in a single hotspot: 75 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Aug 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Aug21 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

101112131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
41km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 571 ha in 2017, 247 ha in 2021, 93 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Mlele where it started
    3,604 ha reached on 7 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)
10 Aug 29.4 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Aug 31.0 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Aug 30.4 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 Aug 30.7 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Aug 30.3 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Aug 31.6 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Aug 31.4 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Aug 30.7 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Aug 31.4 °C 26 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Aug 31.9 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Aug 33.1 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug 33.6 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Aug after 33.6 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Aug after 33.2 °C 24 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
24 Aug after 32.8 °C 19 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Aug after 31.7 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Aug after 32.8 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Aug after 32.9 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Aug after 30.7 °C 25 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Aug after 30.9 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Aug after 31.0 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
31 Aug after 31.5 °C 25 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Aug 2023
After · 28 Aug 2023

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 · 102Every 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 10 August 2023 and 21 August 2023: 12 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 3,584 hectares (35.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mlele (3,604 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 41 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
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.