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Biharamulo fire, July 2020 Biharamulo

Out · last detection 23 Jul 2020, 11:28 UTC

The fire started on 18 July 2020 in Biharamulo, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,537 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 8th largest in Kagera since 2016 (of 14 with a page). Number 136 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.

Burnt area
3,537ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
18 Jul 2020 – 23 Jul 2020
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
18 Jul
2020
Heat detections
101
in a single hotspot: 38 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
757MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Jul 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Jul23 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

1819202123

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
41km/h · peak gust
29%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. Biharamulo where it started
    3,559 ha reached on 18 Jul
    0.5 %

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)
18 Jul 24.8 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Jul 26.7 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
20 Jul 27.5 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
21 Jul 26.5 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
22 Jul 26.8 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
23 Jul 27.7 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Jul after 26.7 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Jul after 28.9 °C 26 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Jul after 28.1 °C 27 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Jul after 26.9 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
28 Jul after 27.6 °C 31 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Jul after 28.1 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
30 Jul after 29.0 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
31 Jul after 29.5 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Aug after 29.2 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Aug after 28.5 °C 26 % 37 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 · 11 Jul 2020
After · 30 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 · 101Every 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 Biharamulo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2020 and 23 July 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 3,537 hectares (35.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Biharamulo (3,559 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 27.7 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 41 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.