How long did the Ulanga fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 September 2018 and 24 October 2018: 30 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 31,455 hectares (314.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ulanga (29,979 ha, 1.3 %); Namtumbo (1,724 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.

TZ · Tanzania · 2018-09-25 → 2018-10-24

Ulanga fire, September 2018 Ulanga, Namtumbo

Out · last detection 25 Oct 2018, 23:16 UTC

The fire started on 25 September 2018 in Ulanga, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 30 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 31,455 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 4th largest in Morogoro since 2016 (of 137 with a page). Number 2 in Tanzania in 2018, of 72.

Burnt area: 31,455ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 30days; 25 Sept 2018 – 24 Oct 2018
Municipalities hit: 2; districts
Started on: 25 Sept; 2018
Heat detections: 1,119; in a single hotspot: 237 MW
Danger at start: 30; High · FWI index
Energy released: 6.9GW; sum of detected power

Play back 25 Oct 2018

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Sept24 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

25262728293012356789101112131415161718192021232425

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

The weather it burned in

35°high

46km/h · peak gust

21%lowest humidity

It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

56% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 17,144 ha in 2016, 855 ha in 2017.

13,452 ha Ulanga fire, November 2016 21,517 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire

What happened to each town

Ulanga where it started

29,979 ha reached on 23 Sept

1.3 %
Namtumbo

1,724 ha reached on 30 Sept

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)
23 Sept	29.1 °C	39 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
24 Sept	30.2 °C	37 %	29 km/h	0.1 mm	High 29
25 Sept	30.9 °C	37 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
26 Sept	32.8 °C	34 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
27 Sept	30.8 °C	33 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
28 Sept	31.5 °C	29 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
29 Sept	32.0 °C	28 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
30 Sept	32.4 °C	24 %	40 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
1 Oct	27.8 °C	47 %	34 km/h	0.4 mm	High 26
2 Oct	29.2 °C	48 %	31 km/h	1.4 mm	Moderate 13
3 Oct	29.2 °C	44 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 21
4 Oct	29.4 °C	42 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 23
5 Oct	29.6 °C	42 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 24
6 Oct	29.8 °C	40 %	28 km/h	0.6 mm	High 24
7 Oct	29.0 °C	44 %	28 km/h	0.4 mm	High 24
8 Oct	29.4 °C	45 %	27 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 19
9 Oct	29.9 °C	42 %	28 km/h	0.9 mm	Moderate 20
10 Oct	30.1 °C	45 %	30 km/h	0.6 mm	High 21
11 Oct	30.9 °C	41 %	30 km/h	0.2 mm	High 25
12 Oct	29.9 °C	41 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
13 Oct	32.0 °C	34 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
14 Oct	32.3 °C	32 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
15 Oct	32.8 °C	34 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
16 Oct	34.3 °C	29 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
17 Oct	32.9 °C	44 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	High 31
18 Oct	33.4 °C	39 %	36 km/h	0.4 mm	High 32
19 Oct	33.3 °C	36 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
20 Oct	35.0 °C	30 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
21 Oct	34.1 °C	30 %	37 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 39
22 Oct	29.3 °C	36 %	46 km/h	0.5 mm	Very high 40
23 Oct	31.9 °C	21 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
24 Oct	32.8 °C	26 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
25 Oct after	30.3 °C	36 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
26 Oct after	32.1 °C	32 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
27 Oct after	31.1 °C	38 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
28 Oct after	31.5 °C	37 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
29 Oct after	32.5 °C	32 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
30 Oct after	33.1 °C	29 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	High 33
31 Oct after	32.6 °C	34 %	35 km/h	0.1 mm	High 35
1 Nov after	34.1 °C	27 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
2 Nov after	33.8 °C	33 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
3 Nov after	34.5 °C	29 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	High 36
4 Nov after	32.8 °C	33 %	32 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 Sept 2018

After · 31 Oct 2018

Before After

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 · 1,119Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Tanzania ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ulanga fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 September 2018 and 24 October 2018: 30 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 31,455 hectares (314.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ulanga (29,979 ha, 1.3 %); Namtumbo (1,724 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned