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Morogoro fire, 17 October 2025 Morogoro, Kilombero

Out · last detection 23 Oct 2025, 23:12 UTC

The fire started on 17 October 2025 in Morogoro, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,301 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 106th largest in Morogoro since 2016 (of 136 with a page). Number 137 in Tanzania in 2025, of 161.

The power measured by the satellite is low (23.2 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
3,301ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
17 Oct 2025 – 22 Oct 2025
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
17 Oct
2025
Heat detections
64
in a single hotspot: 23 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
427MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Oct 2025
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Oct22 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

171819202123

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
31km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.0 mm on 23 Oct.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 477 ha in 2016, 1,131 ha in 2018, 2,770 ha in 2020, 582 ha in 2022, 650 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,995 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Morogoro where it started
    3,320 ha reached on 17 Oct
    0.3 %
  2. Kilombero
    8 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)
17 Oct 30.6 °C 45 % 31 km/h 0.6 mm High 22
18 Oct 31.7 °C 40 % 27 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
19 Oct 32.0 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.5 mm High 25
20 Oct 31.9 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
21 Oct 33.6 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
22 Oct 33.8 °C 42 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 28
23 Oct after 31.7 °C 47 % 34 km/h 2.0 mm Moderate 13

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Oct 2025
After · 29 Oct 2025

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 · Copernicus

On 22 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 47 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 20: 1.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak47 µg/m³
Days over the guideline1 day
PM1051 µg/m³
Optical depth0.76
1516171819202122232425
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 64Every 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 17 October 2025 and 22 October 2025: 6 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 3,301 hectares (33.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Morogoro (3,320 ha, 0.3 %); Kilombero (8 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.8 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 31 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.