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Arbinda fire, 16 December 2020 Arbinda, Tongomayel, Kelbo

Out · last detection 18 Dec 2020, 13:39 UTC

The fire started on 16 December 2020 in Arbinda, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,855 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 12th largest in Soum since 2016 (of 134 with a page). Number 3 in Burkina Faso in 2020, of 121.

Burnt area
4,855ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
16 Dec 2020 – 18 Dec 2020
Municipalities hit
4
communes
Started on
16 Dec
2020
Heat detections
128
in a single hotspot: 41 MW
Danger at start
57
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
902MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Dec 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Dec18 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

161718

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
34km/h · peak gust
13%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

  1. Arbinda where it started
    2,916 ha reached on 16 Dec
    1.0 %
  2. Tongomayel
    1,853 ha reached on 17 Dec
    0.7 %
  3. Kelbo
    89 ha reached on 17 Dec
    0.2 %
  4. Barsalogho
    19 ha
    0.0 %

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)
16 Dec 36.7 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Dec 35.8 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
18 Dec 35.5 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
19 Dec after 34.2 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
20 Dec after 34.6 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Dec after 33.5 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
22 Dec after 33.2 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Dec after 33.7 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Dec after 33.9 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
25 Dec after 33.4 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
26 Dec after 32.5 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
27 Dec after 31.3 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Dec after 31.8 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Dec 2020
After · 25 Dec 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 · 128Every 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 16 December 2020 and 18 December 2020: 3 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 4,855 hectares (48.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Arbinda (2,916 ha, 1.0 %); Tongomayel (1,853 ha, 0.7 %); Kelbo (89 ha, 0.2 %); Barsalogho (19 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.