Bariadi fire, June 2020 Bariadi
The fire started on 15 June 2020 in Bariadi, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,423 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 9th largest in Simiyu since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 28 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.
- Burnt area
- 8,423ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 15 Jun 2020 – 20 Jun 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- districts
- Started on
- 15 Jun
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 247
- in a single hotspot: 31 MW
- Danger at start
- 17
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
18% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 912 ha in 2016, 583 ha in 2018.
What happened to each town
-
Bariadi where it started8,478 ha reached on 15 Jun1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Jun | 26.5 °C | 46 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 16 Jun | 28.5 °C | 40 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 17 Jun | 28.2 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 18 Jun | 27.7 °C | 41 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 19 Jun | 28.2 °C | 40 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 20 Jun | 27.8 °C | 39 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 21 |
| 21 Jun after | 28.0 °C | 37 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 22 Jun after | 26.7 °C | 47 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 23 Jun after | 27.8 °C | 44 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 24 Jun after | 28.4 °C | 38 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 25 Jun after | 28.7 °C | 34 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 26 Jun after | 29.0 °C | 34 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 27 Jun after | 29.2 °C | 40 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 28 Jun after | 29.0 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 29 Jun after | 29.9 °C | 30 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 30 Jun after | 30.2 °C | 28 % | 31 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.
Detections table · 247Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 20,642 haBariadiJune 2016 · 16 days · 17 km away
- 33,514 haSerengeti25 June 2020 · 18 days · 24 km away
- 9,106 haBariadi1 July 2016 · 13 days · 32 km away
- 12,489 haSerengetiJune 2018 · 25 days · 35 km away
- 13,929 haBariadiSeptember 2020 · 11 days · 39 km away
- 10,246 haSerengeti7 July 2016 · 6 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bariadi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 June 2020 and 20 June 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 8,423 hectares (84.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Bariadi (8,478 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.5 °C, humidity dropped to 37 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 22, 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.