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Mpanda fire, July 2018 Mpanda

Out · last detection 12 Jul 2018, 22:43 UTC

The fire started on 6 July 2018 in Mpanda, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,580 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 198th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 45 in Tanzania in 2018, of 72.

Burnt area
3,580ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
6 Jul 2018 – 12 Jul 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
6 Jul
2018
Heat detections
78
in a single hotspot: 112 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
730MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Jul 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Jul12 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

689101112

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
48km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 49 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

54% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 666 ha in 2016, 1,635 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,936 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpanda where it started
    3,609 ha reached on 6 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)
6 Jul 27.4 °C 28 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Jul 28.4 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Jul 28.2 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 Jul 28.6 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
10 Jul 29.8 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Jul 28.5 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
12 Jul 28.1 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Jul after 28.6 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Jul after 29.7 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Jul after 29.1 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Jul after 28.6 °C 27 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Jul after 27.3 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Jul after 25.7 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jul after 26.3 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jul after 27.9 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Jul after 29.0 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Jul after 29.0 °C 29 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Jun 2018
After · 19 Jul 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 · 78Every 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 6 July 2018 and 12 July 2018: 7 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 3,580 hectares (35.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mpanda (3,609 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.8 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.