Mlele fire, October 2026 Mlele, Urambo, Kaliua
The fire started on 3 October 2026 in Mlele, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,407 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 48th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 29 in Tanzania in 2026, of 200.
- Burnt area
- 8,407ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 15days
- 3 Oct 2026 – 17 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- districts
- Started on
- 3 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 161
- in a single hotspot: 56 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 18 Oct.
This area had burned before
93% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,483 ha in 2016, 2,805 ha in 2017, 436 ha in 2018, 1,888 ha in 2019, 1,123 ha in 2020, 4,819 ha in 2021, 1,587 ha in 2022, 941 ha in 2023, 2,209 ha in 2024, 625 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 7,860 ha that had burned before.
- 1,911 ha Mlele fire, August 2021 4,937 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,827 ha Mlele fire, September 2024 4,181 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,472 ha Mlele fire, July 2017 4,251 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,123 ha Mlele fire, September 2020 4,085 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 536 ha Mlele fire, August 2016 3,122 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 14 ha Mlele fire, August 2022 9,226 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Mlele where it started7,892 ha reached on 3 Oct0.3 %
-
377 ha reached on 11 Oct0.1 %
-
182 ha reached on 11 Oct0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Oct | 33.3 °C | 25 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 4 Oct | 33.7 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 47 |
| 5 Oct | 34.1 °C | 21 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 6 Oct | 33.7 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 7 Oct | 34.4 °C | 28 % | 36 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 42 |
| 8 Oct | 33.4 °C | 22 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Oct | 33.6 °C | 27 % | 43 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 48 |
| 10 Oct | 33.4 °C | 26 % | 49 km/h | 0.2 mm | Very high 50 |
| 11 Oct | 33.1 °C | 21 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 12 Oct | 34.0 °C | 19 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 13 Oct | 33.7 °C | 24 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 14 Oct | 34.2 °C | 27 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 15 Oct | 33.9 °C | 28 % | 40 km/h | 0.6 mm | Very high 41 |
| 16 Oct | 33.1 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Oct | 32.0 °C | 27 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Oct after | 32.0 °C | 28 % | 27 km/h | 1.0 mm | High 28 |
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 15 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 18 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 · 161Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 9,226 haMlele19 August 2022 · 8 days · 14 km away
- 17,110 haMlele11 August 2026 · 28 days · 19 km away
- 13,557 haMlele24 July 2019 · 7 days · 21 km away
- 6,847 haMlele27 September 2026 · 10 days · 34 km away
- 22,561 haMlele26 August 2026 · 18 days · 35 km away
- 11,387 haUrambo25 July 2026 · 19 days · 35 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 3 October 2026 to 17 October 2026 (15 days). The perimeter dates it from 4 October 2026 to 14 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 8,407 hectares (84.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Mlele (7,892 ha, 0.3 %); Urambo (377 ha, 0.1 %); Kaliua (182 ha, 0.0 %).
- Is the Mlele fire still active?
- No fire detections since 18 Oct 2026, 11:49 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.4 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, 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.