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Ulanga fire, 19 October 2016 Ulanga

Out · last detection 24 Oct 2016, 23:22 UTC

The fire started on 19 October 2016 in Ulanga, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,087 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 129th largest in Morogoro since 2016 (of 136 with a page). Number 150 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
3,087ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
19 Oct 2016 – 24 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
19 Oct
2016
Heat detections
89
in a single hotspot: 76 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
699MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

24 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Oct24 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

192021222324

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
30km/h · peak gust
27%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. Ulanga where it started
    3,105 ha reached on 18 Oct
    0.1 %

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)
19 Oct 32.4 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
20 Oct 33.5 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Oct 33.9 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
22 Oct 34.3 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
23 Oct 34.2 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Oct 33.8 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Oct after 34.6 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
26 Oct after 33.3 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Oct after 34.7 °C 27 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Oct after 34.9 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Oct after 34.5 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.4 mm High 32
30 Oct after 35.2 °C 38 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Oct after 37.1 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Nov after 36.2 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
2 Nov after 36.5 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Nov after 35.8 °C 27 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Oct 2016
After · 31 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 · 89Every 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 Ulanga fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 October 2016 and 24 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 3,087 hectares (30.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Ulanga (3,105 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.