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Songwe fire, 20 June 2017 Songwe

Out · last detection 2 Jul 2017, 10:30 UTC

The fire started on 20 June 2017 in Songwe, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,425 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 20th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 19 in Tanzania in 2017, of 104.

Burnt area
8,425ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
20 Jun 2017 – 1 Jul 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
20 Jun
2017
Heat detections
234
in a single hotspot: 136 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

2 Jul 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jun1 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

202122232425262728293012

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
38km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

25% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,126 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Songwe where it started
    8,470 ha reached on 20 Jun
    0.8 %

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)
20 Jun 29.4 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Jun 29.1 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
22 Jun 30.0 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Jun 30.8 °C 26 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Jun 30.0 °C 23 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Jun 29.1 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
26 Jun 30.7 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jun 29.3 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jun 28.8 °C 27 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Jun 29.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Jun 30.3 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
1 Jul 29.3 °C 24 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Jul after 29.4 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
3 Jul after 30.2 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Jul after 29.5 °C 27 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Jul after 29.1 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Jul after 28.7 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Jul after 30.4 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Jul after 30.1 °C 23 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Jul after 28.6 °C 23 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Jul after 29.3 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 Jul after 29.7 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jun 2017
After · 8 Jul 2017

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 · 234Every 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 20 June 2017 and 1 July 2017: 12 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 8,425 hectares (84.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Songwe (8,470 ha, 0.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 30.8 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, 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.