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Darak fire, 19 June 2016 Darak

Out · last detection 26 Jun 2016, 11:34 UTC

The fire started on 19 June 2016 in Darak, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,783 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 30th largest in Far North since 2016 (of 337 with a page). Number 29 in Cameroon in 2016, of 304.

Burnt area
2,783ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
19 Jun 2016 – 26 Jun 2016
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
19 Jun
2016
Heat detections
85
in a single hotspot: 169 MW
Danger at start
61
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

26 Jun 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Jun26 Jun

How it evolved, day by day

19202122232426

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
41km/h · peak gust
33%lowest humidity

It had gone 22 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. Darak where it started
    2,508 ha reached on 19 Jun
    1.3 %

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)
19 Jun 36.9 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.2 mm Extreme 61
20 Jun 33.6 °C 46 % 38 km/h 1.2 mm High 30
21 Jun 32.8 °C 55 % 37 km/h 5.2 mm Low 11
22 Jun 34.1 °C 48 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
23 Jun 36.9 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
24 Jun 35.1 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Jun 37.5 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.7 mm High 35
26 Jun 36.3 °C 39 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jun after 35.7 °C 45 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jun after 32.7 °C 51 % 39 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
29 Jun after 34.4 °C 45 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Jun after 34.1 °C 50 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
1 Jul after 37.8 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.7 mm Very high 40
2 Jul after 36.1 °C 46 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
3 Jul after 37.9 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Jul after 37.8 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
5 Jul after 37.9 °C 35 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Jul after 34.6 °C 51 % 45 km/h 0.2 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Jun 2016
After · 3 Jul 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 · 85Every 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 Cameroon ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Darak fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 June 2016 and 26 June 2016: 8 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 2,783 hectares (27.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Darak (2,508 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 33 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
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.

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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 (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.