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Boula fire, January 2016 Boula, Karala

Out · last detection 3 Feb 2016, 13:15 UTC

The fire started on 28 January 2016 in Boula, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,273 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 118th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 388 with a page). Number 53 in Guinea in 2016, of 172.

Burnt area
3,273ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
28 Jan 2016 – 3 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
28 Jan
2016
Heat detections
112
in a single hotspot: 60 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jan3 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

293031123

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
40km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Boula where it started
    3,087 ha reached on 24 Jan
    0.9 %
  2. Karala
    204 ha reached on 24 Jan
    0.1 %

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)
28 Jan 31.8 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jan 30.7 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jan 31.3 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Jan 31.6 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Feb 32.6 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Feb 30.8 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Feb 32.6 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Feb after 33.8 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Feb after 33.5 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Feb after 34.7 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Feb after 34.9 °C 15 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Feb after 33.9 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
9 Feb after 34.0 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Feb after 34.2 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Feb after 34.5 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Feb after 34.6 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
13 Feb after 35.0 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jan 2016
After · 10 Feb 2016

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 · 112Every 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 Guinea ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Boula fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 January 2016 and 3 February 2016: 7 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 3,273 hectares (32.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Boula (3,087 ha, 0.9 %); Karala (204 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea (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.

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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.