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Sikonge fire, October 2016 Sikonge

Out · last detection 21 Oct 2016, 22:38 UTC

The fire started on 17 October 2016 in Sikonge, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,334 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 35th largest in Tabora since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 134 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
3,334ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
17 Oct 2016 – 21 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
17 Oct
2016
Heat detections
110
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
49
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
455MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Oct21 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
53km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 12 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. Sikonge where it started
    3,358 ha reached on 17 Oct
    0.1 %

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)
17 Oct 34.7 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Oct 33.6 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
19 Oct 32.7 °C 21 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Oct 32.7 °C 16 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
21 Oct 32.6 °C 18 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Oct after 34.2 °C 16 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
23 Oct after 34.7 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Oct after 35.1 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Oct after 34.6 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
26 Oct after 33.6 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm Extreme 51
27 Oct after 33.5 °C 24 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Oct after 33.7 °C 20 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
29 Oct after 33.7 °C 22 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
30 Oct after 34.2 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
31 Oct after 34.4 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Oct 2016
After · 28 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 · 110Every 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 17 October 2016 and 21 October 2016: 5 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 3,334 hectares (33.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Sikonge (3,358 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 53 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.