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Nyasa fire, 6 October 2016 Nyasa

Out · last detection 15 Oct 2016, 11:45 UTC

The fire started on 6 October 2016 in Nyasa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,430 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 65th largest in Ruvuma since 2016 (of 90 with a page). Number 125 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
3,430ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
6 Oct 2016 – 14 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
6 Oct
2016
Heat detections
161
in a single hotspot: 105 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Oct14 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

67891011121415

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
50km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone one day 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. Nyasa where it started
    3,457 ha reached on 30 Sept
    1.1 %

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 Oct 27.6 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
7 Oct 30.5 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Oct 29.8 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
9 Oct 29.5 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Oct 28.4 °C 32 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Oct 29.6 °C 28 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Oct 29.4 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Oct 29.9 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Oct 29.5 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Oct after 28.1 °C 35 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Oct after 30.2 °C 28 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Oct after 31.0 °C 30 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Oct after 29.6 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Oct after 27.4 °C 29 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Oct after 28.8 °C 28 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Oct after 29.8 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Oct after 30.5 °C 26 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Oct after 30.9 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Oct after 31.2 °C 28 % 40 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 · 29 Sept 2016
After · 21 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 · 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 Nyasa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 October 2016 and 14 October 2016: 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 3,430 hectares (34.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Nyasa (3,457 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.5 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 50 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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.