Darak fire, June 2020 Darak
The fire started on 22 June 2020 in Darak, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,480 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 13th largest in Far North since 2016 (of 339 with a page). Number 8 in Cameroon in 2020, of 268.
- Burnt area
- 4,480ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 22 Jun 2020 – 26 Jun 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 22 Jun
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 152
- in a single hotspot: 35 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 958MW
- 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 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,156 ha in 2016, 2,143 ha in 2017, 100 ha in 2018, 2,308 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,921 ha that had burned before.
- 1,932 ha Darak fire, April 2016 3,405 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,754 ha Darak fire, June 2019 2,460 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,545 ha Darak fire, July 2017 2,311 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 863 ha Darak fire, June 2016 1,037 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 599 ha Darak fire, June 2017 1,204 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 554 ha Darak fire, March 2019 1,173 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 319 ha Darak fire, June 2016 2,783 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 100 ha Darak fire, June 2018 1,553 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Darak where it started4,511 ha reached on 22 Jun2.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 Jun | 37.5 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 23 Jun | 38.6 °C | 28 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 24 Jun | 39.0 °C | 29 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 25 Jun | 39.0 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 26 Jun | 38.3 °C | 32 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 27 Jun after | 38.3 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 28 Jun after | 38.3 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.5 mm | Very high 46 |
| 29 Jun after | 32.7 °C | 51 % | 39 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 40 |
| 30 Jun after | 34.8 °C | 42 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 1 Jul after | 36.6 °C | 36 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 2 Jul after | 37.9 °C | 37 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 3 Jul after | 37.7 °C | 39 % | 43 km/h | 0.9 mm | Very high 41 |
| 4 Jul after | 33.2 °C | 55 % | 48 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 41 |
| 5 Jul after | 33.6 °C | 46 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 6 Jul after | 34.7 °C | 46 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 36 |
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 · 152Every 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 Darak fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 June 2020 and 26 June 2020: 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 4,480 hectares (44.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Darak (4,511 ha, 2.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.0 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, 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.
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.