Mlele fire, 1 July 2026 Mlele, Mpanda
The fire started on 1 July 2026 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,122 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 153th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 105 in Tanzania in 2026, of 196.
- Burnt area
- 4,122ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 1 Jul 2026 – 13 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 1 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 103
- in a single hotspot: 91 MW
- Danger at start
- 39
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.0GW
- 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
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,794 ha in 2016, 1,298 ha in 2017, 1,240 ha in 2018, 3,074 ha in 2019, 2,026 ha in 2020, 706 ha in 2021, 3,672 ha in 2022, 1,204 ha in 2023, 2,125 ha in 2024, 1,807 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,146 ha that had burned before.
- 3,074 ha Mlele fire, June 2019 16,714 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,026 ha Mlele fire, June 2020 7,794 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,577 ha Mlele fire, June 2022 17,720 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,512 ha Mlele fire, July 2025 3,619 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,383 ha Mpanda fire, July 2022 11,417 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 902 ha Mlele fire, May 2018 5,669 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 712 ha Mlele fire, July 2022 4,659 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 351 ha Mlele fire, June 2017 6,510 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mlele where it started3,669 ha reached on 30 Jun0.1 %
-
483 ha reached on 2 Jul0.0 %
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 Jul | 30.8 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Jul | 32.0 °C | 28 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Jul | 33.0 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 4 Jul | 31.8 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 5 Jul | 30.7 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 6 Jul | 29.5 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 7 Jul | 29.5 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 8 Jul | 30.0 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 9 Jul | 30.4 °C | 34 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 10 Jul | 31.3 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 11 Jul | 31.2 °C | 34 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Jul | 31.0 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 13 Jul | 31.7 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 14 Jul after | 30.7 °C | 34 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Jul after | 31.4 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 16 Jul after | 30.4 °C | 31 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Jul after | 30.4 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Jul after | 31.6 °C | 26 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Jul after | 32.1 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 20 Jul after | 32.7 °C | 25 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 21 Jul after | 33.8 °C | 25 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Jul after | 32.3 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 23 Jul after | 32.5 °C | 28 % | 37 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.
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 16 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 58 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 41: 2.8 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 · 103Every 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 July 2026 and 13 July 2026: 13 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 4,122 hectares (41.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mlele (3,669 ha, 0.1 %); Mpanda (483 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 33.0 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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
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.