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Bilimono fire, 31 December 2022 Bilimono

Out · last detection 9 Jan 2023, 02:34 UTC

The fire started on 31 December 2022 in Bilimono, Côte d’Ivoire, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,275 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 33th largest in Savanes since 2016 (of 276 with a page). Number 18 in Côte d’Ivoire in 2022, of 127.

Burnt area
3,275ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
31 Dec 2022 – 9 Jan 2023
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
31 Dec
2022
Heat detections
98
in a single hotspot: 91 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
386MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

9 Jan 2023
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Dec9 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

13456789

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
33km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 27 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

87% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,439 ha in 2016, 14 ha in 2018, 843 ha in 2019, 456 ha in 2020, 1,402 ha in 2021, 80 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,858 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Bilimono where it started
    3,295 ha reached on 1 Jan
    1.0 %

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)
31 Dec 34.5 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
1 Jan 33.8 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 Jan 33.5 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Jan 33.2 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Jan 33.8 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Jan 34.0 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Jan 33.9 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Jan 35.1 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
8 Jan 36.2 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Jan 36.1 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Jan after 35.7 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Jan after 34.4 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
12 Jan after 34.0 °C 25 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Jan after 35.1 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Jan after 34.4 °C 19 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Jan after 34.0 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
16 Jan after 35.1 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
17 Jan after 35.7 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Jan after 36.0 °C 19 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Jan after 35.9 °C 19 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Dec 2022
After · 16 Jan 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 · 98Every 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 Côte d’Ivoire ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Bilimono fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 December 2022 to 9 January 2023 (10 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 January 2023 to 9 January 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,275 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Bilimono (3,295 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Côte d’Ivoire (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.

Emergency number: 180

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. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 180.

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 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 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.