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Bariadi fire, June 2016 Bariadi, Serengeti

Out · last detection 9 Jul 2016, 23:27 UTC

The fire started on 24 June 2016 in Bariadi, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 20,642 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Simiyu since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 8 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
20,642ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
24 Jun 2016 – 9 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
24 Jun
2016
Heat detections
578
in a single hotspot: 80 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
4.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Jun9 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

24252627282930123456789

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
39km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone one day 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. Bariadi where it started
    19,218 ha reached on 24 Jun
    3.5 %
  2. Serengeti
    1,562 ha reached on 1 Jul
    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)
24 Jun 26.1 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
25 Jun 27.0 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
26 Jun 28.1 °C 34 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
27 Jun 28.6 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
28 Jun 28.4 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
29 Jun 28.3 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
30 Jun 27.5 °C 34 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
1 Jul 28.5 °C 36 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
2 Jul 29.4 °C 34 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
3 Jul 29.4 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
4 Jul 28.5 °C 35 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Jul 29.1 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
6 Jul 29.5 °C 30 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
7 Jul 29.5 °C 31 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Jul 28.0 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.5 mm High 28
9 Jul 28.7 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
10 Jul after 29.1 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Jul after 27.2 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Jul after 26.2 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
13 Jul after 27.9 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Jul after 28.2 °C 35 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Jul after 27.9 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Jul after 28.6 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Jul after 29.2 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
18 Jul after 29.2 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Jul after 30.2 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Jun 2016
After · 16 Jul 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 · 578Every 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 Bariadi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 June 2016 and 9 July 2016: 16 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 20,642 hectares (206.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bariadi (19,218 ha, 3.5 %); Serengeti (1,562 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.5 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 39 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.

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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.