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Songwe fire, September 2017 Songwe

Out · last detection 27 Sept 2017, 11:40 UTC

The fire started on 15 September 2017 in Songwe, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,094 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 47th largest in Mbeya since 2016 (of 147 with a page). Number 35 in Tanzania in 2017, of 104.

Burnt area
5,094ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
15 Sept 2017 – 27 Sept 2017
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
15 Sept
2017
Heat detections
148
in a single hotspot: 33 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
844MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Sept 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Sept27 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

151617181920212223242527

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
38km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,973 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Songwe where it started
    5,116 ha reached on 15 Sept
    0.5 %

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)
15 Sept 25.7 °C 38 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
16 Sept 25.7 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
17 Sept 26.7 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
18 Sept 26.1 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
19 Sept 25.8 °C 43 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
20 Sept 25.9 °C 52 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
21 Sept 27.1 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Sept 25.9 °C 36 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Sept 25.1 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
24 Sept 26.3 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
25 Sept 26.2 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
26 Sept 24.9 °C 48 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
27 Sept 26.1 °C 49 % 32 km/h 0.3 mm High 26
28 Sept after 26.7 °C 43 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Sept after 27.1 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Sept after 26.0 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
1 Oct after 26.1 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Oct after 26.2 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Oct after 27.1 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
4 Oct after 26.5 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Oct after 26.4 °C 44 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
6 Oct after 26.8 °C 46 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Oct after 25.9 °C 44 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Sept 2017
After · 4 Oct 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 · 148Every 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 15 September 2017 and 27 September 2017: 13 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 5,094 hectares (50.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Songwe (5,116 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.1 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.