Itilima fire, July 2020 Itilima, Bariadi
The fire started on 19 July 2020 in Itilima, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,154 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 45th largest in Simiyu since 2016 (of 68 with a page). Number 99 in Tanzania in 2020, of 187.
- Burnt area
- 4,154ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 19 Jul 2020 – 28 Jul 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 19 Jul
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 120
- in a single hotspot: 47 MW
- Danger at start
- 30
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 603MW
- 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 35 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 29 Jul.
This area had burned before
71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,948 ha in 2016.
What happened to each town
-
Itilima where it started3,868 ha reached on 19 Jul0.8 %
-
313 ha reached on 22 Jul0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Jul | 24.6 °C | 34 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Jul | 25.1 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Jul | 25.1 °C | 36 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 22 Jul | 26.1 °C | 36 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 23 Jul | 26.2 °C | 36 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 24 Jul | 25.7 °C | 36 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 25 Jul | 26.3 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 26 Jul | 25.2 °C | 30 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Jul | 25.6 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 28 Jul | 24.7 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 29 Jul after | 26.7 °C | 39 % | 34 km/h | 1.9 mm | Moderate 14 |
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 · 120Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 13,929 haBariadiSeptember 2020 · 11 days · 15 km away
- 15,277 haItilimaJuly 2019 · 8 days · 17 km away
- 20,642 haBariadiJune 2016 · 16 days · 24 km away
- 33,514 haSerengeti25 June 2020 · 18 days · 26 km away
- 12,489 haSerengetiJune 2018 · 25 days · 30 km away
- 16,712 haSerengeti17 July 2020 · 10 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Itilima fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 July 2020 and 28 July 2020: 10 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 4,154 hectares (41.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Itilima (3,868 ha, 0.8 %); Bariadi (313 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 26.3 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 38 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.