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Babati fire, 11 September 2020 Babati, Kondoa

Out · last detection 16 Sept 2020, 10:56 UTC

The fire started on 11 September 2020 in Babati, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,416 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Manyara since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 42 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.

Burnt area
6,416ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
11 Sept 2020 – 16 Sept 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
11 Sept
2020
Heat detections
170
in a single hotspot: 199 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Average daily power
364MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

16 Sept 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Sept16 Sept

How it evolved, day by day

11 Sept 2020 · 19 MW · 12 12 Sept 2020 · 937 MW · 47 13 Sept 2020 · 523 MW · 60 14 Sept 2020 · 276 MW · 19 15 Sept 2020 · 297 MW · 23 16 Sept 2020 · 134 MW · 9
11 Sept 12 Sept 13 Sept 14 Sept 15 Sept 16 Sept

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

The weather it burned in

31°high
40km/h · peak gust
27%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. Babati where it started
    5,848 ha reached on 11 Sept
    1.0 %
  2. Kondoa
    613 ha reached on 15 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)
11 Sept 26.1 °C 42 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Sept 29.4 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
13 Sept 30.4 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Sept 30.6 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Sept 29.9 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
16 Sept 31.4 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
17 Sept after 30.6 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Sept after 29.6 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Sept after 29.2 °C 32 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Sept after 29.8 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Sept after 30.1 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Sept after 29.9 °C 32 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Sept after 27.9 °C 44 % 39 km/h 0.8 mm High 26
24 Sept after 28.4 °C 37 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
25 Sept after 29.5 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Sept after 30.1 °C 35 % 36 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 · 4 Sept 2020
After · 23 Sept 2020

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 · 170Every 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 11 September 2020 and 16 September 2020: 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 6,416 hectares (64.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Babati (5,848 ha, 1.0 %); Kondoa (613 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.4 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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

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.