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Namtumbo fire, 9 October 2016 Namtumbo

Out · last detection 19 Oct 2016, 10:30 UTC

The fire started on 9 October 2016 in Namtumbo, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,501 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 31th largest in Ruvuma since 2016 (of 90 with a page). Number 70 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

The power measured by the satellite is low (21.6 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
4,501ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
9 Oct 2016 – 19 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Oct
2016
Heat detections
137
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
697MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Oct19 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

910111213141516171819

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
37km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Namtumbo where it started
    4,517 ha reached on 8 Oct
    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)
9 Oct 29.1 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Oct 30.1 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
11 Oct 30.9 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
12 Oct 30.4 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Oct 30.7 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Oct 31.2 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Oct 30.4 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Oct 30.0 °C 41 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Oct 30.8 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Oct 31.0 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
19 Oct 29.4 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Oct after 30.1 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
21 Oct after 31.5 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.4 mm High 32
22 Oct after 31.6 °C 30 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Oct after 31.4 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Oct after 31.1 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Oct after 31.0 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
26 Oct after 29.9 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Oct after 31.7 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Oct after 31.7 °C 33 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Oct after 31.5 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.2 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Oct 2016
After · 26 Oct 2016

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 · 137Every 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 Namtumbo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 October 2016 and 19 October 2016: 11 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 4,501 hectares (45.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Namtumbo (4,517 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.2 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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
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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.