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Tunduru fire, October 2022 Tunduru

Out · last detection 4 Nov 2022, 23:35 UTC

The fire started on 25 October 2022 in Tunduru, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,004 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 92th largest in Ruvuma since 2016 (of 92 with a page). Number 71 in Tanzania in 2022, of 71.

Burnt area
3,004ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
25 Oct 2022 – 3 Nov 2022
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
25 Oct
2022
Heat detections
104
in a single hotspot: 35 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
577MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

4 Nov 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Oct3 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

252627282930311234

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
34km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,368 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Tunduru where it started
    3,018 ha reached on 18 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)
25 Oct 32.3 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Oct 31.6 °C 31 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Oct 32.3 °C 24 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Oct 33.0 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Oct 33.3 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Oct 32.7 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Oct 33.0 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Nov 32.5 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Nov 31.6 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Nov 32.5 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Nov after 31.4 °C 34 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Nov after 32.2 °C 29 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Nov after 32.4 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Nov after 32.2 °C 29 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Nov after 33.4 °C 26 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 Nov after 34.0 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
10 Nov after 32.1 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 36
11 Nov after 31.9 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.7 mm High 28
12 Nov after 33.0 °C 24 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Nov after 33.5 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Oct 2022
After · 10 Nov 2022

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 · 104Every 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 25 October 2022 and 3 November 2022: 10 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 3,004 hectares (30.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tunduru (3,018 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.3 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.