Mlele fire, 30 August 2026 Mlele
The fire started on 30 August 2026 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,673 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 46th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 26 in Tanzania in 2026, of 200.
Compare with…
Suggestions: Mlele · 2021Mlele · 2019Mlele · 2016Mlele · 2020
- Burnt area
- 8,673ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 19days
- 30 Aug 2026 – 17 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 30 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 343
- in a single hotspot: 56 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 118MW
- detected power per day, on average
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: 3,663 ha in 2016, 4,351 ha in 2017, 1,664 ha in 2018, 5,992 ha in 2019, 1,145 ha in 2020, 5,876 ha in 2021, 350 ha in 2022, 1,463 ha in 2023, 165 ha in 2024, 2,936 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 8,624 ha that had burned before.
- 5,876 ha Mlele fire, August 2021 9,740 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 5,622 ha Mlele fire, September 2019 10,170 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 829 ha Mlele fire, August 2016 3,827 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 263 ha Mlele fire, September 2020 9,060 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 247 ha Mlele fire, August 2019 11,555 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 195 ha Mlele fire, August 2018 3,497 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 132 ha Mlele fire, August 2016 8,486 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 108 ha Mlele fire, July 2017 3,503 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Mlele where it started8,740 ha reached on 30 Aug0.3 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 Aug | 27.4 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 31 Aug | 28.4 °C | 29 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Sept | 28.0 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 2 Sept | 29.0 °C | 27 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 3 Sept | 29.1 °C | 26 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 4 Sept | 29.9 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 5 Sept | 30.9 °C | 28 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 6 Sept | 29.2 °C | 31 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 7 Sept | 28.2 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 8 Sept | 27.1 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 9 Sept | 26.3 °C | 36 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 10 Sept | 27.2 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Sept | 27.5 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Sept | 27.8 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 13 Sept | 28.2 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Sept | 29.7 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Sept | 28.3 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 16 Sept | 27.4 °C | 34 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 17 Sept | 27.2 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 18 Sept after | 29.1 °C | 36 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 19 Sept after | 28.9 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Sept after | 30.2 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 21 Sept after | 30.1 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Sept after | 29.0 °C | 32 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 34 |
| 24 Sept after | 29.3 °C | 34 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 25 Sept after | 29.7 °C | 35 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 26 Sept after | 29.7 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 27 Sept after | 29.2 °C | 24 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
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 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 107 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 56: 3.8 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 · 343Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 14,689 haMlele9 September 2022 · 19 days · 20 km away
- 21,840 haMlele12 September 2025 · 26 days · 21 km away
- 12,919 haMlele10 July 2017 · 15 days · 22 km away
- 34,561 haMlele28 June 2016 · 25 days · 29 km away
- 28,157 haMlele28 August 2017 · 19 days · 31 km away
- 20,520 haMlele17 June 2017 · 13 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Mlele fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 30 August 2026 to 17 September 2026 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 September 2026 to 17 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,673 hectares (86.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Mlele (8,740 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 30.9 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 1 September 2026 to 17 September 2026. 343 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
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.