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Kibondo fire, 9 August 2016 Kibondo

Out · last detection 18 Aug 2016, 11:34 UTC

The fire started on 9 August 2016 in Kibondo, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,893 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 31th largest in Kigoma since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 44 in Tanzania in 2016, of 160.

Burnt area
5,893ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
9 Aug 2016 – 18 Aug 2016
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
9 Aug
2016
Heat detections
140
in a single hotspot: 216 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Aug 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Aug18 Aug

How it evolved, day by day

9101112131415161718

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
38km/h · peak gust
25%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
    5,932 ha reached on 9 Aug
    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)
9 Aug 29.6 °C 33 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Aug 29.7 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Aug 29.6 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
12 Aug 30.3 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Aug 30.0 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
14 Aug 31.6 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Aug 30.0 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Aug 28.6 °C 38 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
17 Aug 28.8 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
18 Aug 30.4 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
19 Aug after 31.0 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
20 Aug after 30.9 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Aug after 32.2 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
22 Aug after 33.2 °C 21 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Aug after 32.9 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Aug after 29.7 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Aug after 29.9 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Aug after 29.6 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
27 Aug after 28.9 °C 29 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
28 Aug after 29.7 °C 25 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Aug 2016
After · 25 Aug 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 · 140Every 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 9 August 2016 and 18 August 2016: 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 5,893 hectares (58.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kibondo (5,932 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.