Darak fire, March 2022 Darak
The fire started on 3 March 2022 in Darak, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,288 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 22th largest in Far North since 2016 (of 339 with a page). Number 18 in Cameroon in 2022, of 201.
- Burnt area
- 3,288ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 3 Mar 2022 – 7 Mar 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 3 Mar
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 98
- in a single hotspot: 130 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.8GW
- 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
43% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,716 ha in 2016, 1,171 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,399 ha that had burned before.
- 1,016 ha Darak fire, June 2016 2,783 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 623 ha Mamdi fire, June 2019 3,384 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 548 ha Mamdi fire, July 2019 14,480 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 502 ha Darak fire, May 2016 1,243 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Darak where it started3,172 ha reached on 3 Mar1.7 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 Mar | 35.3 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 4 Mar | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 5 Mar | 36.5 °C | 19 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 6 Mar | 39.4 °C | 14 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 7 Mar | 38.3 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 8 Mar after | 38.4 °C | 21 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 9 Mar after | 38.7 °C | 19 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 10 Mar after | 34.9 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 11 Mar after | 32.5 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 12 Mar after | 33.0 °C | 24 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 13 Mar after | 32.6 °C | 22 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 14 Mar after | 32.8 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 15 Mar after | 31.7 °C | 22 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 16 Mar after | 29.9 °C | 22 % | 54 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 17 Mar after | 30.8 °C | 22 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
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 · 98Every 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 3 March 2022 and 7 March 2022: 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 3,288 hectares (32.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Darak (3,172 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.