Albadariah fire, 17 January 2021 Albadariah, Douako
The fire started on 17 January 2021 in Albadariah, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,761 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 39th largest in Faranah since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 16 in Guinea in 2021, of 111.
- Burnt area
- 4,761ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 17 Jan 2021 – 22 Jan 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- sub-prefectures
- Started on
- 17 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 144
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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 31 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
100% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,035 ha in 2016, 3,096 ha in 2017, 3,826 ha in 2018, 168 ha in 2019, 3,734 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,778 ha that had burned before.
- 4,035 ha Albadariah fire, January 2016 15,872 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 3,826 ha Douako fire, January 2018 22,404 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,888 ha Douako fire, January 2017 9,259 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,944 ha Albadariah fire, January 2020 2,138 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 575 ha Douako fire, January 2020 5,082 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 125 ha Douako fire, February 2019 9,318 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 43 ha Douako fire, February 2019 2,100 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Albadariah where it started4,249 ha reached on 17 Jan6.0 %
-
543 ha reached on 17 Jan0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Jan | 34.1 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 18 Jan | 34.9 °C | 11 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 19 Jan | 35.4 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Jan | 35.1 °C | 15 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 21 Jan | 35.1 °C | 13 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 22 Jan | 35.2 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 23 Jan after | 34.7 °C | 12 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Jan after | 34.9 °C | 12 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 25 Jan after | 35.9 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 26 Jan after | 36.0 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 27 Jan after | 36.8 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 28 Jan after | 36.6 °C | 12 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 29 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 19 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 30 Jan after | 36.4 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 31 Jan after | 36.1 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 1 Feb after | 36.5 °C | 7 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
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 · 144Every 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 Albadariah fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 17 January 2021 and 22 January 2021: 6 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 4,761 hectares (47.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Albadariah (4,249 ha, 6.0 %); Douako (543 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.4 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
- 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.