How long did the Akpassanou fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 January 2016 to 10 February 2016 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 January 2016 to 7 February 2016.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,585 hectares (45.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: M'Bahiakro (3,760 ha, 2.3 %); Akpassanou (855 ha, 2.8 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.

Where does this data come from?

From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Côte d’Ivoire (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

CI · Côte d’Ivoire · 2016-01-25 → 2016-02-10

Akpassanou fire, January 2016 M'Bahiakro, Akpassanou

Out · last detection 10 Feb 2016, 14:23 UTC

The fire started on 25 January 2016 in Akpassanou, Côte d’Ivoire, and satellites saw it burning for 17 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,585 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 9th largest in Lacs since 2016 (of 139 with a page). Number 21 in Côte d’Ivoire in 2016, of 226.

Burnt area: 4,585ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 17days; 25 Jan 2016 – 10 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit: 2; sub-prefectures
Started on: 25 Jan; 2016
Heat detections: 123; in a single hotspot: 68 MW
Danger at start: 51; Extreme · FWI index
Energy released: 1.6GW; sum of detected power

Play back 10 Feb 2016

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jan10 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

252627282930123456710

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

The weather it burned in

38°high

36km/h · peak gust

7%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

M'Bahiakro

3,760 ha reached on 27 Jan

2.3 %
Akpassanou where it started

855 ha reached on 25 Jan

2.8 %

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)
25 Jan	35.2 °C	10 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
26 Jan	34.7 °C	15 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
27 Jan	35.5 °C	12 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
28 Jan	34.6 °C	9 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
29 Jan	34.2 °C	11 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
30 Jan	35.4 °C	11 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
31 Jan	36.1 °C	17 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
1 Feb	36.4 °C	8 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
2 Feb	36.2 °C	9 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
3 Feb	36.5 °C	7 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
4 Feb	35.8 °C	18 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
5 Feb	36.3 °C	15 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
6 Feb	38.1 °C	14 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 45
7 Feb	37.0 °C	18 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
8 Feb	36.3 °C	22 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
9 Feb	37.3 °C	18 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
10 Feb	37.3 °C	10 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
11 Feb after	37.6 °C	19 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
12 Feb after	37.1 °C	18 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 46
13 Feb after	36.4 °C	23 %	18 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
14 Feb after	37.3 °C	34 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
15 Feb after	35.9 °C	40 %	24 km/h	0.4 mm	High 34
16 Feb after	39.2 °C	21 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
17 Feb after	39.1 °C	26 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
18 Feb after	39.1 °C	25 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
19 Feb after	39.0 °C	25 %	28 km/h	0.1 mm	Very high 44
20 Feb after	40.4 °C	19 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 18 Jan 2016

After · 17 Feb 2016

Before After

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 · 123Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Côte d’Ivoire ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Akpassanou fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 January 2016 to 10 February 2016 (17 days). The perimeter dates it from 25 January 2016 to 7 February 2016.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,585 hectares (45.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: M'Bahiakro (3,760 ha, 2.3 %); Akpassanou (855 ha, 2.8 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?: From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Côte d’Ivoire (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: 180

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

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What really happened?

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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 ADM3 (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.

Where it burned