Mlele fire, 1 August 2024 Mlele
The fire started on 1 August 2024 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,969 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 84th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 14 in Tanzania in 2024, of 70.
The power measured by the satellite is low (22.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 5,969ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 1 Aug 2024 – 7 Aug 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 1 Aug
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 257
- in a single hotspot: 22 MW
- Danger at start
- 48
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.6GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,467 ha in 2016, 3,586 ha in 2017, 749 ha in 2018, 3,466 ha in 2019, 2,368 ha in 2020, 1,755 ha in 2021, 1,718 ha in 2022, 2,865 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,924 ha that had burned before.
- 3,220 ha Mlele fire, May 2019 6,004 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,593 ha Mlele fire, August 2017 5,089 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,534 ha Mlele fire, October 2016 24,580 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,273 ha Mlele fire, July 2023 3,053 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,145 ha Mlele fire, May 2016 5,504 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,077 ha Mlele fire, June 2022 3,543 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,024 ha Mlele fire, October 2021 4,852 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 749 ha Mlele fire, June 2018 8,377 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mlele where it started6,012 ha reached on 1 Aug0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Aug | 31.1 °C | 22 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Aug | 30.5 °C | 23 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Aug | 32.0 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Aug | 33.3 °C | 13 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 5 Aug | 33.8 °C | 17 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Aug | 33.4 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 7 Aug | 33.2 °C | 21 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 8 Aug after | 32.9 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 9 Aug after | 32.8 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 10 Aug after | 33.1 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 11 Aug after | 32.8 °C | 25 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Aug after | 32.6 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 13 Aug after | 32.1 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 Aug after | 33.3 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Aug after | 32.4 °C | 31 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 16 Aug after | 32.0 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 17 Aug after | 31.6 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 4 August 2024 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 27: 1.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 257Every 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 1 August 2024 and 7 August 2024: 7 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 5,969 hectares (59.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mlele (6,012 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.
- 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.