Arbinda fire, 2 December 2025 Arbinda
The fire started on 2 December 2025 in Arbinda, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,104 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 19th largest in Soum since 2016 (of 134 with a page). Number 81 in Burkina Faso in 2025, of 609.
- Burnt area
- 4,104ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 2 Dec 2025 – 6 Dec 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 2 Dec
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 77
- in a single hotspot: 47 MW
- Danger at start
- 63
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 437MW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
15% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 141 ha in 2021, 460 ha in 2022.
What happened to each town
-
Arbinda where it started4,130 ha reached on 2 Dec1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Dec | 34.0 °C | 12 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 3 Dec | 34.2 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 4 Dec | 32.6 °C | 6 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 5 Dec | 33.3 °C | 5 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 6 Dec | 33.9 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 7 Dec after | 34.5 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 8 Dec after | 35.0 °C | 5 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 9 Dec after | 34.5 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 10 Dec after | 34.4 °C | 7 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 11 Dec after | 34.9 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 12 Dec after | 34.6 °C | 11 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 13 Dec after | 33.7 °C | 11 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 14 Dec after | 32.5 °C | 18 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 15 Dec after | 28.3 °C | 21 % | 49 km/h | 0.1 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 16 Dec after | 31.9 °C | 18 % | 36 km/h | 0.3 mm | Extreme 55 |
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 5 December 2025 the air beside the fire reached 80 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 49: 3.3 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 · 77Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 24,590 haArbinda 19 October 2026 · 5 days · 14 km away
- 37,890 haArbinda26 October 2025 · 8 days · 17 km away
- 8,161 haArbinda11 November 2020 · 7 days · 20 km away
- 9,569 haArbinda27 October 2022 · 4 days · 21 km away
- 9,191 haGorom-Gorom18 November 2024 · 4 days · 23 km away
- 10,056 haArbinda28 January 2022 · 4 days · 30 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Arbinda fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 December 2025 and 6 December 2025: 5 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 4,104 hectares (41.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Arbinda (4,130 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.2 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 64, 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.