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Songwe fire, October 2016 Songwe

Out · last detection 13 Oct 2016, 23:28 UTC

The fire started on 8 October 2016 in Songwe, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,511 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 62th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 69 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

The power measured by the satellite is low (28.3 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
4,511ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
8 Oct 2016 – 13 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
8 Oct
2016
Heat detections
166
in a single hotspot: 28 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
693MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Oct13 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

910111213

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
37km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 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. Songwe where it started
    4,455 ha reached on 7 Oct
    0.4 %

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 Oct 27.3 °C 47 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
9 Oct 27.9 °C 43 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
10 Oct 28.1 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
11 Oct 27.7 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
12 Oct 27.2 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Oct 27.1 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Oct after 28.0 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Oct after 27.9 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
16 Oct after 27.8 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Oct after 28.3 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
18 Oct after 28.3 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
19 Oct after 28.2 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Oct after 28.0 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Oct after 27.6 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Oct after 28.0 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Oct after 28.0 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Oct 2016
After · 20 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 · 166Every 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 Songwe fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 October 2016 and 13 October 2016: 6 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 4,511 hectares (45.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Songwe (4,455 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.1 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.