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Sikonge fire, 18 August 2016 Sikonge

Out · last detection 27 Aug 2016, 12:05 UTC

The fire started on 18 August 2016 in Sikonge, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,808 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 10th largest in Tabora since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 59 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
4,808ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
18 Aug 2016 – 27 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Aug
2016
Heat detections
129
in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start
47
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
512MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Aug27 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

18192021222324252627

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
49km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Sikonge where it started
    4,841 ha reached on 18 Aug
    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)
18 Aug 31.1 °C 25 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 Aug 30.9 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
20 Aug 31.3 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Aug 32.9 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Aug 34.1 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Aug 33.8 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
24 Aug 29.4 °C 25 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
25 Aug 30.4 °C 23 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
26 Aug 30.4 °C 24 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
27 Aug 29.7 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
28 Aug after 29.6 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
29 Aug after 30.1 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Aug after 30.0 °C 21 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
31 Aug after 30.2 °C 19 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Sept after 30.1 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Sept after 29.6 °C 24 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
3 Sept after 29.6 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
4 Sept after 31.7 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
5 Sept after 32.0 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Sept after 31.8 °C 30 % 40 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 · 11 Aug 2016
After · 3 Sept 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 · 129Every 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 Sikonge fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 August 2016 and 27 August 2016: 10 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 4,808 hectares (48.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sikonge (4,841 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.1 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, class Extreme.
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.