Mlele fire, 13 May 2026 Mlele
The fire started on 13 May 2026 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,134 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 250th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 182 in Tanzania in 2026, of 200.
The power measured by the satellite is low (24.1 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
- 3,134ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 13 May 2026 – 17 May 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 13 May
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 57
- in a single hotspot: 24 MW
- Danger at start
- 21
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 430MW
- 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 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,768 ha in 2016, 1,045 ha in 2017, 2,447 ha in 2018, 1,830 ha in 2019, 1,437 ha in 2020, 1,944 ha in 2021, 2,613 ha in 2022, 879 ha in 2023, 1,475 ha in 2024, 612 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,153 ha that had burned before.
- 2,514 ha Mlele fire, June 2022 17,720 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,869 ha Mlele fire, June 2018 4,226 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,639 ha Mlele fire, June 2021 5,928 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,451 ha Mlele fire, June 2024 3,348 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,100 ha Mlele fire, May 2016 3,354 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 50 ha Mlele fire, May 2019 6,004 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3 ha Mlele fire, August 2017 5,089 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mlele where it started3,157 ha reached on 8 May0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 May | 32.2 °C | 35 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 14 May | 32.7 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 May | 32.3 °C | 35 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 16 May | 31.3 °C | 35 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 17 May | 31.4 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 18 May after | 31.5 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 May after | 32.0 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 20 May after | 32.4 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 21 May after | 31.8 °C | 37 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 22 May after | 31.8 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 23 May after | 32.5 °C | 33 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 24 May after | 32.3 °C | 32 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 25 May after | 32.2 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 May after | 30.6 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 27 May after | 31.5 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
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 20 May 2026 the air beside the fire reached 13 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 57Every 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 13 May 2026 and 17 May 2026: 5 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 3,134 hectares (31.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mlele (3,157 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 29, 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.