Arbinda fire, 20 November 2025 Arbinda, Pensa
The fire started on 20 November 2025 in Arbinda, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,673 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 22th largest in Soum since 2016 (of 135 with a page). Number 101 in Burkina Faso in 2025, of 609.
The power measured by the satellite is low (27.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 3,673ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 3days
- 20 Nov 2025 – 22 Nov 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 20 Nov
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 41
- in a single hotspot: 28 MW
- Danger at start
- 60
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 316MW
- 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 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 612 ha in 2021, 1,018 ha in 2022, 1,009 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,137 ha that had burned before.
- 754 ha Arbinda fire, January 2022 1,056 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 592 ha Arbinda fire, October 2021 5,040 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 362 ha Arbinda fire, November 2023 1,450 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 243 ha Arbinda fire, November 2023 2,084 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 240 ha Arbinda fire, November 2023 1,056 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 200 ha Arbinda fire, December 2022 1,537 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 164 ha Arbinda fire, November 2023 3,470 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 64 ha Arbinda fire, January 2022 10,056 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Arbinda where it started3,640 ha reached on 21 Nov1.3 %
-
52 ha0.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 Nov | 37.0 °C | 2 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 21 Nov | 37.5 °C | 5 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 22 Nov | 38.1 °C | 2 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 23 Nov after | 36.9 °C | 8 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 24 Nov after | 36.1 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 25 Nov after | 37.2 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 26 Nov after | 36.7 °C | 10 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Nov after | 36.6 °C | 9 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 28 Nov after | 37.4 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 29 Nov after | 37.3 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 30 Nov after | 36.8 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 1 Dec after | 36.0 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 2 Dec after | 34.4 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 24 November 2025 the air beside the fire reached 50 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 32: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 41Every 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 Arbinda fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 20 November 2025 and 22 November 2025: 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 3,673 hectares (36.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Arbinda (3,640 ha, 1.3 %); Pensa (52 ha, 0.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 2 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, 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.
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 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.