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Bariadi fire, 1 July 2016 Bariadi, Itilima

Out · last detection 14 Jul 2016, 10:51 UTC

The fire started on 1 July 2016 in Bariadi, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,106 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 8th largest in Simiyu since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 27 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
9,106ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
1 Jul 2016 – 13 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
1 Jul
2016
Heat detections
276
in a single hotspot: 37 MW
Danger at start
24
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

14 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 1 Jul13 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

12345678910111214

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
32km/h · peak gust
29%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 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. Bariadi where it started
    4,725 ha reached on 1 Jul
    0.9 %
  2. Itilima
    4,441 ha reached on 5 Jul
    0.9 %

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)
1 Jul 26.9 °C 36 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Jul 27.8 °C 34 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
3 Jul 27.8 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 Jul 26.9 °C 34 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
5 Jul 27.5 °C 31 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Jul 27.9 °C 29 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
7 Jul 28.0 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
8 Jul 26.5 °C 35 % 24 km/h 0.5 mm High 27
9 Jul 27.1 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
10 Jul 27.5 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Jul 25.6 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
12 Jul 24.6 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
13 Jul 26.3 °C 31 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
14 Jul after 26.6 °C 34 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
15 Jul after 26.3 °C 33 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Jul after 27.0 °C 31 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Jul after 27.6 °C 24 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
18 Jul after 27.6 °C 28 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
19 Jul after 28.6 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Jul after 28.6 °C 25 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Jul after 27.6 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
22 Jul after 27.8 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
23 Jul after 27.3 °C 29 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Jun 2016
After · 20 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 · 276Every 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 1 July 2016 and 13 July 2016: 13 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 9,106 hectares (91.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bariadi (4,725 ha, 0.9 %); Itilima (4,441 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 28.0 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, 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.