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Mpanda fire, 22 June 2022 Mpanda

Out · last detection 27 Jun 2022, 11:27 UTC

The fire started on 22 June 2022 in Mpanda, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,905 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 115th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 21 in Tanzania in 2022, of 71.

Burnt area
4,905ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
22 Jun 2022 – 27 Jun 2022
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
22 Jun
2022
Heat detections
161
in a single hotspot: 129 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Jun 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jun27 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

29°high
38km/h · peak gust
27%lowest humidity

It had gone 51 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,373 ha in 2016, 1,651 ha in 2017, 1,949 ha in 2018, 2,726 ha in 2019, 2,270 ha in 2020, 900 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,398 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Mpanda where it started
    4,945 ha reached on 22 Jun
    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)
22 Jun 29.2 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Jun 29.3 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Jun 28.5 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jun 28.0 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Jun 28.2 °C 36 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Jun 28.2 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Jun after 26.6 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jun after 27.4 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Jun after 28.7 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Jul after 27.6 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Jul after 28.2 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
3 Jul after 28.9 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
4 Jul after 28.5 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Jul after 28.3 °C 30 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Jul after 28.9 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Jul after 29.9 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jun 2022
After · 4 Jul 2022

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 · 161Every 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 22 June 2022 and 27 June 2022: 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 4,905 hectares (49.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Mpanda (4,945 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.3 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.