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Tunduru fire, 10 October 2016 Tunduru

Out · last detection 17 Oct 2016, 11:07 UTC

The fire started on 10 October 2016 in Tunduru, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,669 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 29th largest in Ruvuma since 2016 (of 90 with a page). Number 65 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
4,669ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
10 Oct 2016 – 17 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
10 Oct
2016
Heat detections
147
in a single hotspot: 193 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Oct17 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1011121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
40km/h · peak gust
25%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. Tunduru where it started
    4,692 ha reached on 10 Oct
    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)
10 Oct 29.6 °C 33 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Oct 31.7 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Oct 30.8 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Oct 31.3 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Oct 31.7 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Oct 31.4 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
16 Oct 30.1 °C 37 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Oct 32.0 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Oct after 31.4 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
19 Oct after 30.1 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Oct after 31.2 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Oct after 31.5 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Oct after 31.7 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Oct after 31.9 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Oct after 31.3 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Oct after 31.5 °C 28 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
26 Oct after 30.6 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Oct after 32.4 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Oct 2016
After · 24 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 · 147Every 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 Tunduru fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 October 2016 and 17 October 2016: 8 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 4,669 hectares (46.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tunduru (4,692 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.0 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.