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BF · Burkina Faso · →

Arbinda fire, 11 November 2020 Arbinda

Out · last detection 17 Nov 2020, 02:12 UTC

The fire started on 11 November 2020 in Arbinda, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,161 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Soum since 2016 (of 135 with a page). Number 2 in Burkina Faso in 2020, of 121.

Burnt area
8,161ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
11 Nov 2020 – 17 Nov 2020
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
11 Nov
2020
Heat detections
238
in a single hotspot: 78 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Nov 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Nov17 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

11121314151617

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
45km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 32 days 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. Arbinda where it started
    8,215 ha reached on 11 Nov
    2.9 %

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)
11 Nov 34.7 °C 14 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
12 Nov 34.5 °C 13 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
13 Nov 33.8 °C 12 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
14 Nov 34.4 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
15 Nov 35.7 °C 15 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
16 Nov 35.3 °C 15 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
17 Nov 35.1 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Nov after 34.9 °C 16 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Nov after 33.7 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
20 Nov after 33.6 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Nov after 33.9 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Nov after 34.5 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
23 Nov after 34.7 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Nov after 33.5 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Nov after 33.2 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Nov after 33.4 °C 11 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
27 Nov after 35.2 °C 9 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Nov 2020
After · 24 Nov 2020

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 · 238Every 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 Burkina Faso ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Arbinda fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 November 2020 and 17 November 2020: 7 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 8,161 hectares (81.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Arbinda (8,215 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Burkina Faso (OCHA COD-AB). 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.

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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 OCHA COD-AB (Institut Geographique Burkina (IGB)) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-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.