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Mpanda fire, July 2017 Mpanda

Out · last detection 21 Jul 2017, 11:14 UTC

The fire started on 19 July 2017 in Mpanda, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,776 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 177th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 64 in Tanzania in 2017, of 104.

Burnt area
3,776ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
19 Jul 2017 – 21 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Jul
2017
Heat detections
102
in a single hotspot: 100 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
884MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jul21 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

192021

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
36km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

75% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,844 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpanda where it started
    3,806 ha reached on 19 Jul
    0.2 %

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)
19 Jul 31.3 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
20 Jul 31.8 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Jul 31.2 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Jul after 31.6 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Jul after 32.3 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Jul after 30.8 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Jul after 29.8 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Jul after 30.2 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jul after 30.5 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jul after 30.0 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Jul after 30.0 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Jul after 30.3 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jul after 30.1 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jul 2017
After · 28 Jul 2017

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 · 102Every 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 Mpanda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 July 2017 and 21 July 2017: 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 3,776 hectares (37.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mpanda (3,806 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.8 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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
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.