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Nkasi fire, August 2017 Nkasi, Mpanda

Out · last detection 16 Aug 2017, 22:31 UTC

The fire started on 8 August 2017 in Nkasi, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,401 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Rukwa since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 45 in Tanzania in 2017, of 104.

Burnt area
4,401ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
8 Aug 2017 – 16 Aug 2017
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
8 Aug
2017
Heat detections
149
in a single hotspot: 77 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Aug 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Aug16 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

8910111213141516

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
43km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

7% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 311 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Nkasi where it started
    4,419 ha reached on 8 Aug
    0.4 %
  2. Mpanda
    5 ha reached on 8 Aug
    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)
8 Aug 29.7 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Aug 29.3 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Aug 26.9 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Aug 28.8 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Aug 29.0 °C 31 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
13 Aug 30.6 °C 28 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Aug 30.6 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
15 Aug 30.1 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Aug 31.1 °C 33 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Aug after 30.8 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Aug after 30.7 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Aug after 30.6 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Aug after 31.2 °C 27 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug after 30.4 °C 28 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Aug after 30.4 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Aug after 30.9 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Aug after 31.8 °C 27 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Aug after 32.6 °C 22 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Aug after 32.0 °C 23 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Aug 2017
After · 23 Aug 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 · 149Every 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 Nkasi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 August 2017 and 16 August 2017: 9 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 4,401 hectares (44.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nkasi (4,419 ha, 0.4 %); Mpanda (5 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.1 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 43 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.