Bariadi fire, June 2024 Bariadi, Serengeti
The fire started on 18 June 2024 in Bariadi, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,880 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 48th largest in Simiyu since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 40 in Tanzania in 2024, of 70.
- Burnt area
- 3,880ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 18 Jun 2024 – 22 Jun 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 18 Jun
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 187
- in a single hotspot: 52 MW
- Danger at start
- 27
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.2GW
- 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 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,997 ha in 2016, 3,092 ha in 2018, 2,783 ha in 2020, 1,595 ha in 2021, 372 ha in 2022, 591 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,893 ha that had burned before.
- 3,092 ha Serengeti fire, June 2018 12,489 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,972 ha Bariadi fire, June 2016 20,642 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,087 ha Serengeti fire, June 2020 33,514 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 355 ha Serengeti fire, July 2020 16,712 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 83 ha Serengeti fire, June 2020 4,645 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 28 ha Bariadi fire, July 2022 3,488 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3 ha Bariadi fire, July 2023 3,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bariadi where it started3,307 ha reached on 17 Jun0.6 %
-
599 ha reached on 21 Jun0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jun | 28.2 °C | 32 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 19 Jun | 28.9 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 20 Jun | 26.7 °C | 44 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Jun | 27.3 °C | 37 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 22 Jun | 27.8 °C | 36 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 23 Jun after | 27.7 °C | 34 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 24 Jun after | 27.8 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 25 Jun after | 27.7 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 26 Jun after | 28.0 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 27 Jun after | 26.8 °C | 35 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Jun after | 28.1 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 29 Jun after | 29.0 °C | 29 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 30 Jun after | 28.4 °C | 30 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Jul after | 29.1 °C | 25 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 2 Jul after | 29.2 °C | 29 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
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 17 June 2024 the air beside the fire reached 23 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO 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 · 187Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bariadi fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 June 2024 and 22 June 2024: 5 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 3,880 hectares (38.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Bariadi (3,307 ha, 0.6 %); Serengeti (599 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.9 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 45 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
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.