Skip to content
worldfires
BF · Burkina Faso · →

Arbinda fire, 14 November 2023 Arbinda

Out · last detection 18 Nov 2023, 01:23 UTC

The fire started on 14 November 2023 in Arbinda, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,470 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 27th largest in Soum since 2016 (of 135 with a page). Number 17 in Burkina Faso in 2023, of 261.

Burnt area
3,470ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
14 Nov 2023 – 17 Nov 2023
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
14 Nov
2023
Heat detections
103
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
71
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
615MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Nov 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Nov17 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718

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
48km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

60% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,076 ha in 2022.

What happened to each town

  1. Arbinda where it started
    3,489 ha reached on 14 Nov
    1.2 %

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)
14 Nov 37.0 °C 6 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
15 Nov 37.8 °C 7 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
16 Nov 37.2 °C 21 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
17 Nov 37.0 °C 17 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
18 Nov after 37.1 °C 12 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
19 Nov after 37.0 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Nov after 37.0 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
21 Nov after 36.9 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Nov after 36.4 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Nov after 36.9 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Nov after 36.0 °C 10 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Nov after 35.2 °C 10 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 Nov after 36.4 °C 6 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
27 Nov after 35.8 °C 23 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Nov 2023
After · 24 Nov 2023

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 · 103Every 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 14 November 2023 and 17 November 2023: 4 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 3,470 hectares (34.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Arbinda (3,489 ha, 1.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very 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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.