Mlele fire, 2 June 2026 Mlele
The fire started on 2 June 2026 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,713 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 125th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 83 in Tanzania in 2026, of 196.
The power measured by the satellite is low (25.8 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
- 4,713ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 2 Jun 2026 – 8 Jun 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 2 Jun
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 45
- in a single hotspot: 26 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 236MW
- 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 33 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 433 ha in 2016, 2,027 ha in 2017, 31 ha in 2018, 96 ha in 2019, 2,826 ha in 2020, 664 ha in 2021, 3,182 ha in 2022, 2,348 ha in 2023, 2,022 ha in 2024, 2,070 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,563 ha that had burned before.
- 2,826 ha Mlele fire, June 2020 6,578 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,471 ha Mlele fire, June 2022 3,650 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,310 ha Mlele fire, June 2023 3,310 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 73 ha Mlele fire, June 2016 4,059 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mlele where it started4,747 ha reached on 2 Jun0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Jun | 31.7 °C | 33 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 3 Jun | 31.4 °C | 35 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 4 Jun | 32.7 °C | 33 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 5 Jun | 32.2 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Jun | 32.1 °C | 35 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Jun | 30.8 °C | 41 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 8 Jun | 31.6 °C | 37 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 9 Jun after | 32.1 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 10 Jun after | 30.9 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 11 Jun after | 31.0 °C | 37 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Jun after | 29.3 °C | 37 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Jun after | 30.5 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 14 Jun after | 30.6 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 15 Jun after | 29.6 °C | 35 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Jun after | 30.1 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Jun after | 30.6 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Jun after | 30.5 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
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 9 June 2026 the air beside the fire reached 19 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 · 45Every 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 2 June 2026 and 8 June 2026: 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 4,713 hectares (47.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mlele (4,747 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.