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Babati fire, July 2016 Babati, Monduli

Out · last detection 29 Jul 2016, 11:09 UTC

The fire started on 20 July 2016 in Babati, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,105 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Manyara since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 35 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
7,105ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
20 Jul 2016 – 28 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
20 Jul
2016
Heat detections
224
in a single hotspot: 61 MW
Danger at start
27
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jul28 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

20212223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

28°high
36km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 29 days 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. Babati where it started
    6,791 ha reached on 20 Jul
    1.2 %
  2. Monduli
    362 ha reached on 20 Jul
    0.0 %

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)
20 Jul 26.2 °C 38 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Jul 26.2 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Jul 25.7 °C 45 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
23 Jul 27.3 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Jul 27.3 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Jul 27.1 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
26 Jul 26.3 °C 35 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
27 Jul 28.1 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
28 Jul 27.3 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
29 Jul after 27.1 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Jul after 26.7 °C 36 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Jul after 28.1 °C 32 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Aug after 27.7 °C 32 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Aug after 28.3 °C 28 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
3 Aug after 27.4 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Aug after 26.7 °C 38 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Aug after 24.9 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
6 Aug after 24.1 °C 43 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
7 Aug after 24.4 °C 43 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Jul 2016
After · 4 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 · 224Every 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 Babati fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 July 2016 and 28 July 2016: 9 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 7,105 hectares (71.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Babati (6,791 ha, 1.2 %); Monduli (362 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.1 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 33, 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.