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Kibondo fire, 3 July 2016 Kibondo

Out · last detection 5 Jul 2016, 23:03 UTC

The fire started on 3 July 2016 in Kibondo, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,592 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 20th largest in Kigoma since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 31 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
7,592ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
3 Jul 2016 – 5 Jul 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
3 Jul
2016
Heat detections
199
in a single hotspot: 196 MW
Danger at start
33
High · FWI index
Energy released
7.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Jul 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Jul5 Jul

How it evolved, day by day

345

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

The weather it burned in

30°high
40km/h · peak gust
30%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Kibondo where it started
    7,649 ha reached on 3 Jul
    0.6 %

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 29.6 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 Jul 28.3 °C 32 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Jul 27.8 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Jul after 28.6 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Jul after 29.1 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
8 Jul after 28.9 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Jul after 28.1 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Jul after 28.0 °C 30 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Jul after 27.5 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
12 Jul after 27.2 °C 35 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Jul after 28.1 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
14 Jul after 27.9 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Jul after 28.8 °C 36 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 26 Jun 2016
After · 12 Jul 2016

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 · 199Every 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 Kibondo fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 3 July 2016 and 5 July 2016: 3 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 7,592 hectares (75.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kibondo (7,649 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 29.6 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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.