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Bariadi fire, 3 July 2020 Bariadi, Serengeti

Out · last detection 16 Jul 2020, 23:01 UTC

The fire started on 3 July 2020 in Bariadi, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 15,533 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Simiyu since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 9 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.

Burnt area
15,533ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
3 Jul 2020 – 15 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
2
districts
Started on
3 Jul
2020
Heat detections
651
in a single hotspot: 94 MW
Danger at start
20
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
5.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Jul 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Jul15 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

345678910111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

26°high
46km/h · peak gust
41%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 46 ha in 2018.

What happened to each town

  1. Bariadi where it started
    11,038 ha reached on 3 Jul
    2.0 %
  2. Serengeti
    4,601 ha reached on 3 Jul
    0.4 %

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)
3 Jul 24.7 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
4 Jul 24.6 °C 47 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
5 Jul 24.7 °C 49 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
6 Jul 24.0 °C 50 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
7 Jul 24.3 °C 43 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
8 Jul 24.4 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
9 Jul 26.3 °C 41 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
10 Jul 24.7 °C 51 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm High 25
11 Jul 24.9 °C 45 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
12 Jul 25.8 °C 44 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
13 Jul 23.4 °C 50 % 28 km/h 0.1 mm Moderate 20
14 Jul 24.2 °C 47 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
15 Jul 25.0 °C 48 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Jul after 23.6 °C 42 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
17 Jul after 24.3 °C 36 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
18 Jul after 22.8 °C 42 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Jul after 24.0 °C 42 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Jul after 24.3 °C 44 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
21 Jul after 24.5 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
22 Jul after 25.6 °C 42 % 29 km/h 0.1 mm High 25
23 Jul after 26.2 °C 39 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
24 Jul after 25.5 °C 39 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
25 Jul after 26.2 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 25

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jun 2020
After · 22 Jul 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 · 651Every 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 3 July 2020 and 15 July 2020: 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 15,533 hectares (155.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bariadi (11,038 ha, 2.0 %); Serengeti (4,601 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 26.3 °C, humidity dropped to 41 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.