How long did the Morogoro fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 September 2018 and 26 September 2018: 3 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 3,475 hectares (34.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Morogoro (3,504 ha, 0.3 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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.

TZ · Tanzania · 2018-09-24 → 2018-09-26

Morogoro fire, September 2018 Morogoro

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2018, 10:55 UTC

The fire started on 24 September 2018 in Morogoro, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,475 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 99th largest in Morogoro since 2016 (of 137 with a page). Number 50 in Tanzania in 2018, of 72.

Burnt area: 3,475ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 3days; 24 Sept 2018 – 26 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit: 1; districts
Started on: 24 Sept; 2018
Heat detections: 126; in a single hotspot: 62 MW
Danger at start: 22; High · FWI index
Energy released: 885MW; sum of detected power

Play back 27 Sept 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Sept26 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

24252627

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high

35km/h · peak gust

37%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.5 mm on 2 Oct.

This area had burned before

61% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,109 ha in 2016.

1,479 ha Morogoro fire, October 2016 3,927 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Morogoro where it started

3,504 ha reached on 23 Sept

0.3 %

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)
24 Sept	32.4 °C	37 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 22
25 Sept	31.7 °C	46 %	32 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 15
26 Sept	32.6 °C	42 %	35 km/h	0.3 mm	High 22
27 Sept after	30.7 °C	46 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Moderate 20
28 Sept after	30.8 °C	40 %	31 km/h	0.5 mm	Moderate 21
29 Sept after	31.9 °C	35 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
30 Sept after	32.9 °C	32 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
1 Oct after	31.2 °C	44 %	31 km/h	0.3 mm	High 23
2 Oct after	30.8 °C	47 %	28 km/h	2.5 mm	Low 7

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

↔

Before · 17 Sept 2018

After · 3 Oct 2018

Before After

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

Detections table · 126Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Tanzania ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Morogoro fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 September 2018 and 26 September 2018: 3 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 3,475 hectares (34.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Morogoro (3,504 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

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.

Where it burned