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Uvinza fire, 16 August 2016 Uvinza

Out · last detection 22 Aug 2016, 23:03 UTC

The fire started on 16 August 2016 in Uvinza, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,328 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 74th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 39 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
6,328ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
16 Aug 2016 – 21 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
16 Aug
2016
Heat detections
199
in a single hotspot: 33 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Aug21 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

16171819202122

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

The weather it burned in

27°high
43km/h · peak gust
30%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. Uvinza where it started
    6,377 ha reached on 16 Aug
    0.6 %

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)
16 Aug 26.2 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Aug 25.7 °C 34 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Aug 26.4 °C 32 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Aug 26.3 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Aug 26.9 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
21 Aug 26.9 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Aug after 27.9 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Aug after 28.2 °C 27 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Aug after 26.1 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
25 Aug after 25.9 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Aug after 25.6 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
27 Aug after 25.8 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Aug after 25.4 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Aug after 25.6 °C 25 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
30 Aug after 25.2 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Aug after 25.3 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Aug 2016
After · 28 Aug 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 · 199Every 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 Uvinza fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 August 2016 and 21 August 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 6,328 hectares (63.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Uvinza (6,377 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.9 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 43 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.