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Morogoro fire, 16 July 2020 Morogoro

Out · last detection 20 Jul 2020, 10:42 UTC

The fire started on 16 July 2020 in Morogoro, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,669 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 93th largest in Morogoro since 2016 (of 137 with a page). Number 123 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.8 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,669ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
16 Jul 2020 – 20 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Jul
2020
Heat detections
76
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
310MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Jul 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Jul20 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1617181920

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
49km/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

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Morogoro where it started
    3,696 ha reached on 16 Jul
    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)
16 Jul 31.2 °C 27 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
17 Jul 29.5 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Jul 29.7 °C 36 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
19 Jul 30.8 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Jul 31.4 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Jul after 30.9 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Jul after 31.4 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
23 Jul after 30.2 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Jul after 30.8 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Jul after 31.4 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
26 Jul after 30.1 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Jul after 31.7 °C 40 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Jul after 32.0 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Jul after 31.9 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Jul after 31.6 °C 42 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Jul 2020
After · 27 Jul 2020

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 · 76Every 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 16 July 2020 and 20 July 2020: 5 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 3,669 hectares (36.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Morogoro (3,696 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 49 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.