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Morogoro fire, October 2018 Morogoro, Kilombero

Out · last detection 24 Oct 2018, 10:49 UTC

The fire started on 23 October 2018 in Morogoro, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,021 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 134th largest in Morogoro since 2016 (of 137 with a page). Number 70 in Tanzania in 2018, of 72.

Burnt area
3,021ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
23 Oct 2018 – 23 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
23 Oct
2018
Heat detections
94
in a single hotspot: 99 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Oct 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

2324

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
39km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

14% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 438 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Morogoro where it started
    3,032 ha reached on 23 Oct
    0.2 %
  2. Kilombero
    14 ha
    0.0 %

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)
23 Oct 33.8 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Oct after 33.4 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Oct after 27.0 °C 59 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Oct after 32.3 °C 50 % 30 km/h 0.7 mm Moderate 17
27 Oct after 32.8 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
28 Oct after 33.5 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Oct after 33.6 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
30 Oct after 35.0 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
31 Oct after 33.9 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Nov after 35.6 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Nov after 35.1 °C 41 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Oct 2018
After · 30 Oct 2018

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 · 94Every 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 timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Tanzania ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Morogoro fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 October 2018 and 23 October 2018: 1 day 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 3,021 hectares (30.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Morogoro (3,032 ha, 0.2 %); Kilombero (14 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.