Uvinza fire, July 2026 Uvinza
The fire started on 27 July 2026 in Uvinza, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,545 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 202th largest in Katavi since 2016 (of 271 with a page). Number 134 in Tanzania in 2026, of 196.
- Burnt area
- 3,545ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 27 Jul 2026 – 2 Aug 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 27 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 73
- in a single hotspot: 59 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 687MW
- 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 50 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,464 ha in 2016, 2,190 ha in 2017, 338 ha in 2019, 133 ha in 2020, 2,142 ha in 2022, 2,617 ha in 2024, 2,007 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,547 ha that had burned before.
- 2,550 ha Uvinza fire, August 2024 6,335 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,190 ha Uvinza fire, August 2017 9,926 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,633 ha Uvinza fire, October 2022 17,964 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,508 ha Uvinza fire, August 2016 7,833 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 479 ha Uvinza fire, August 2025 23,667 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 133 ha Uvinza fire, September 2020 10,515 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 80 ha Uvinza fire, August 2019 10,514 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 67 ha Uvinza fire, August 2024 4,069 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Uvinza where it started3,572 ha reached on 24 Jul0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Jul | 27.0 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Jul | 27.7 °C | 35 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 29 Jul | 28.4 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Jul | 27.6 °C | 41 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 31 Jul | 27.4 °C | 43 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Aug | 26.4 °C | 40 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 2 Aug | 27.5 °C | 37 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 3 Aug after | 27.7 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 4 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 40 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 5 Aug after | 28.2 °C | 38 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 7 Aug after | 28.8 °C | 39 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Aug after | 28.4 °C | 38 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 9 Aug after | 28.5 °C | 35 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 10 Aug after | 29.4 °C | 33 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Aug after | 29.0 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 12 Aug after | 28.9 °C | 34 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 30 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 29: 1.9 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 73Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Uvinza fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 July 2026 and 2 August 2026: 7 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 3,545 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Uvinza (3,572 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.4 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, 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.