Albadariah fire, 23 January 2018 Albadariah
The fire started on 23 January 2018 in Albadariah, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,437 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 21th largest in Faranah since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 7 in Guinea in 2018, of 107.
- Burnt area
- 7,437ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 23 Jan 2018 – 27 Jan 2018
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 23 Jan
- 2018
- Heat detections
- 233
- in a single hotspot: 96 MW
- Danger at start
- 44
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 2.6GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.8 mm on 2 Feb.
This area had burned before
81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,852 ha in 2016, 5,267 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,001 ha that had burned before.
- 5,267 ha Manfran fire, January 2017 70,029 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,851 ha Albadariah fire, January 2016 2,937 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1 ha Albadariah fire, January 2016 14,222 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Albadariah where it started7,485 ha reached on 16 Jan11 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jan | 35.4 °C | 13 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Jan | 34.7 °C | 20 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 25 Jan | 35.1 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 26 Jan | 34.9 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Jan | 34.6 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 28 Jan after | 35.1 °C | 19 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 29 Jan after | 32.8 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 35 |
| 30 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 16 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 31 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 22 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 1 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 28 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | Very high 42 |
| 2 Feb after | 32.2 °C | 41 % | 28 km/h | 2.8 mm | Moderate 12 |
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 · 233Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 70,029 haManfranJanuary 2017 · 16 days · 2 km away
- 72,176 haAlbadariah7 January 2026 · 48 days · 6 km away
- 19,542 haManfran24 January 2020 · 16 days · 17 km away
- 26,206 haManfran23 January 2021 · 9 days · 22 km away
- 22,404 haDouako18 January 2018 · 11 days · 25 km away
- 25,026 haFirawaJanuary 2016 · 13 days · 28 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Albadariah fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2018 and 27 January 2018: 5 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 7,437 hectares (74.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Albadariah (7,485 ha, 11 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea (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.
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 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.