Babati fire, July 2024 Babati
The fire started on 22 July 2024 in Babati, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,218 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 17th largest in Manyara since 2016 (of 19 with a page). Number 62 in Tanzania in 2024, of 70.
- Burnt area
- 3,218ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 22 Jul 2024 – 27 Jul 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 22 Jul
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 51
- in a single hotspot: 68 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 697MW
- 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 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
20% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 603 ha in 2017, 42 ha in 2021.
What happened to each town
-
Babati where it started3,238 ha reached on 22 Jul0.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jul | 29.5 °C | 32 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 23 Jul | 28.4 °C | 26 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 24 Jul | 29.0 °C | 33 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 25 Jul | 28.5 °C | 39 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 26 Jul | 28.6 °C | 37 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 27 Jul | 28.2 °C | 36 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 28 Jul after | 27.2 °C | 41 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 29 Jul after | 29.2 °C | 38 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 30 Jul after | 29.9 °C | 33 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 31 Jul after | 29.1 °C | 32 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 1 Aug after | 28.3 °C | 28 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 2 Aug after | 27.6 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 3 Aug after | 28.1 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 29 |
| 4 Aug after | 28.6 °C | 32 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 5 Aug after | 29.3 °C | 26 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 6 Aug after | 29.3 °C | 26 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
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 24 July 2024 the air beside the fire reached 62 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 35: 2.3 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 · 51Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,989 haBabati19 September 2025 · 5 days · 6 km away
- 5,244 haBabati4 October 2020 · 5 days · 13 km away
- 7,105 haBabatiJuly 2016 · 9 days · 32 km away
- 4,492 haBabati2 October 2020 · 4 days · 33 km away
- 4,345 haBabati30 September 2025 · 3 days · 33 km away
- 3,546 haBabati26 September 2020 · 3 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Babati fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 July 2024 and 27 July 2024: 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 3,218 hectares (32.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Babati (3,238 ha, 0.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 24 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, 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.