Ulanga fire, 14 November 2016 Ulanga
The fire started on 14 November 2016 in Ulanga, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,066 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 131th largest in Morogoro since 2016 (of 137 with a page). Number 152 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.
The power measured by the satellite is low (16.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,066ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 14 Nov 2016 – 18 Nov 2016
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 14 Nov
- 2016
- Heat detections
- 103
- in a single hotspot: 16 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 272MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 19 Nov.
This area had burned before
No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.
What happened to each town
-
Ulanga where it started3,090 ha reached on 13 Nov0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Nov | 32.1 °C | 43 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Nov | 32.3 °C | 41 % | 34 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Nov | 34.0 °C | 31 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 17 Nov | 33.1 °C | 39 % | 36 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 35 |
| 18 Nov | 29.5 °C | 56 % | 34 km/h | 8.7 mm | Very low 4 |
| 19 Nov after | 32.7 °C | 43 % | 30 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 11 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 103Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 26,732 haUlangaOctober 2025 · 24 days · 20 km away
- 21,517 haUlanga9 November 2016 · 10 days · 20 km away
- 37,159 haUlanga19 September 2025 · 19 days · 21 km away
- 11,393 haUlangaNovember 2022 · 4 days · 21 km away
- 83,831 haUlanga14 September 2021 · 72 days · 27 km away
- 31,455 haUlangaSeptember 2018 · 30 days · 29 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Ulanga fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 November 2016 and 18 November 2016: 5 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 3,066 hectares (30.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Ulanga (3,090 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 35, 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
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.