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Nyasa fire, September 2018 Nyasa

Out · last detection 29 Sept 2018, 23:04 UTC

The fire started on 14 September 2018 in Nyasa, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,535 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 30th largest in Ruvuma since 2016 (of 90 with a page). Number 32 in Tanzania in 2018, of 72.

Burnt area
4,535ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
14 Sept 2018 – 28 Sept 2018
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Sept
2018
Heat detections
158
in a single hotspot: 100 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Sept 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Sept28 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

14151617181921222426272829

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
47km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 58 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.1 mm on 1 Oct.

This area had burned before

26% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,158 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Nyasa where it started
    4,570 ha reached on 14 Sept
    1.5 %

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)
14 Sept 28.8 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
15 Sept 29.1 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Sept 27.6 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
17 Sept 29.1 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
18 Sept 28.7 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Sept 28.0 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Sept 28.2 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.5 mm High 36
21 Sept 28.7 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm High 34
22 Sept 28.5 °C 26 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Sept 26.9 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Sept 26.7 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Sept 26.8 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Sept 29.6 °C 38 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm High 35
27 Sept 28.1 °C 34 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
28 Sept 29.5 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Sept after 29.2 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Sept after 26.9 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.4 mm High 38
1 Oct after 22.9 °C 54 % 35 km/h 2.1 mm Low 8

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Sept 2018
After · 5 Oct 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 · 158Every 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 14 September 2018 and 28 September 2018: 15 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 4,535 hectares (45.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Nyasa (4,570 ha, 1.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.