Béka fire, February 2020 Béka
The fire started on 28 February 2020 in Béka, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,774 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 168th largest in North since 2016 (of 1648 with a page). Number 22 in Cameroon in 2020, of 268.
The power measured by the satellite is low (28.3 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
- 2,774ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 28 Feb 2020 – 2 Mar 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 28 Feb
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 68
- in a single hotspot: 28 MW
- Danger at start
- 46
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 345MW
- 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
89% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 917 ha in 2016, 2,272 ha in 2017, 1,461 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,465 ha that had burned before.
- 2,272 ha Béka fire, February 2017 3,825 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,461 ha Béka fire, January 2019 1,855 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 917 ha Béka fire, January 2016 1,053 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Béka where it started2,466 ha reached on 28 Feb1.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Feb | 34.5 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Feb | 35.6 °C | 11 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 1 Mar | 35.7 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 2 Mar | 35.9 °C | 11 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Mar after | 35.3 °C | 10 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 4 Mar after | 35.4 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 5 Mar after | 35.8 °C | 7 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Mar after | 36.4 °C | 7 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 7 Mar after | 35.3 °C | 7 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 8 Mar after | 35.1 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 9 Mar after | 36.2 °C | 7 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 10 Mar after | 37.3 °C | 6 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Mar after | 36.6 °C | 6 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 12 Mar after | 32.9 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
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.
Detections table · 68Every 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 Béka fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 February 2020 and 2 March 2020: 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 2,774 hectares (27.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Béka (2,466 ha, 1.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cameroon (geoBoundaries). 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 geoBoundaries ADM3 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.