Kibondo fire, 5 August 2026 Kibondo, Kasulu
The fire started on 5 August 2026 in Kibondo, Tanzania, and satellites saw it burning for 47 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 88,329 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
This page is probably a fire complex, not a single fire. GWIS merges into one perimeter the fires that touch over weeks, which in large burning seasons can join dozens of separate fires. The total area is reliable; the origin and dates refer to the whole complex.
Other fire pages in the same area and on the same dates:
- 8,184 haKasuluAugust 2026 · 5 days
- 7,774 haKibondo14 August 2026 · 24 days
- 6,120 haKibondo5 August 2026 · 11 days
- 5,341 haKibondo10 August 2026 · 6 days
- 4,641 haKibondo31 July 2026 · 10 days
- 3,507 haKibondo29 August 2026 · 6 days
- 3,423 haKibondo24 August 2026 · 12 days
- 3,304 haKibondoSeptember 2026 · 10 days
It is the largest fire in Kigoma since 2016 (of 101 with a page). Number 2 in Tanzania in 2026, of 206.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 88,329ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 47days
- 5 Aug 2026 – 20 Sept 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- districts
- Started on
- 5 Aug
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 2,745
- in a single hotspot: 306 MW
- Danger at start
- 34
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 768MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
71% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 20,907 ha in 2016, 3,007 ha in 2017, 7,182 ha in 2018, 1,664 ha in 2019, 12,091 ha in 2020, 10,968 ha in 2021, 7,241 ha in 2022, 7,940 ha in 2023, 11,464 ha in 2024, 26,916 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 62,645 ha that had burned before.
- 12,732 ha Kibondo fire, August 2025 28,520 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 4,211 ha Kibondo fire, August 2016 4,830 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,001 ha Kibondo fire, September 2025 3,565 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,398 ha Kibondo fire, August 2024 3,221 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,332 ha Kibondo fire, August 2025 3,873 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,009 ha Kibondo fire, August 2023 8,953 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,008 ha Kibondo fire, August 2021 4,845 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,007 ha Kibondo fire, July 2022 8,779 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Kibondo where it started88,880 ha reached on 5 Aug6.6 %
-
56 ha reached on 5 Aug0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Aug | 30.0 °C | 34 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Aug | 30.5 °C | 33 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 7 Aug | 31.4 °C | 30 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 8 Aug | 30.4 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 9 Aug | 30.5 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 10 Aug | 31.9 °C | 25 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 11 Aug | 31.6 °C | 23 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 12 Aug | 31.7 °C | 24 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 13 Aug | 30.9 °C | 17 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 14 Aug | 30.5 °C | 28 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 15 Aug | 29.6 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 16 Aug | 30.6 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 17 Aug | 31.4 °C | 30 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 18 Aug | 30.2 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Aug | 31.0 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 20 Aug | 30.2 °C | 30 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Aug | 31.1 °C | 28 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Aug | 31.5 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Aug | 30.5 °C | 33 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 24 Aug | 32.3 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Aug | 31.1 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Aug | 33.0 °C | 24 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 27 Aug | 32.2 °C | 21 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Aug | 31.5 °C | 23 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 29 Aug | 30.9 °C | 25 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 30 Aug | 31.7 °C | 24 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 31 Aug | 32.0 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 1 Sept | 31.9 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 2 Sept | 32.8 °C | 21 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Sept | 33.3 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 4 Sept | 33.4 °C | 23 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 5 Sept | 34.7 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 6 Sept | 33.7 °C | 20 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 7 Sept | 32.4 °C | 24 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 8 Sept | 31.8 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 9 Sept | 30.9 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 10 Sept | 30.1 °C | 31 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 11 Sept | 31.0 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 12 Sept | 32.4 °C | 27 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 13 Sept | 33.5 °C | 26 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 14 Sept | 32.2 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 15 Sept | 33.7 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Sept | 31.0 °C | 30 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 17 Sept | 31.1 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 18 Sept | 31.9 °C | 30 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Sept | 31.4 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 20 Sept | 33.3 °C | 21 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 21 Sept after | 33.7 °C | 25 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 22 Sept after | 33.5 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 23 Sept after | 33.9 °C | 25 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 24 Sept after | 33.4 °C | 28 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 25 Sept after | 33.6 °C | 26 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
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 6 September 2026 the air beside the fire reached 67 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 44: 2.9 times the WHO daily 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 · 2,745Every 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 Kibondo fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 5 August 2026 to 20 September 2026 (47 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 August 2026 to 15 September 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 88,329 hectares (883.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kibondo (88,880 ha, 6.6 %); Kasulu (56 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
No changes since 24 October 2026.
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 9 polygons grouped in this page.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 August 2026 to 15 September 2026. 2,745 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.