Darak fire, May 2024 Darak
The fire started on 2 May 2024 in Darak, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,908 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 26th largest in Far North since 2016 (of 339 with a page). Number 14 in Cameroon in 2024, of 195.
The power measured by the satellite is low (25.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
- Burnt area
- 2,908ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 2 May 2024 – 7 May 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 2 May
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 88
- in a single hotspot: 25 MW
- Danger at start
- 55
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 812MW
- 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
82% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 144 ha in 2016, 299 ha in 2018, 1 ha in 2019, 245 ha in 2020, 2,083 ha in 2021, 355 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,387 ha that had burned before.
- 2,083 ha Darak fire, May 2021 4,670 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 355 ha Darak fire, May 2022 4,924 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 299 ha Darak fire, June 2018 1,553 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 245 ha Darak fire, June 2020 4,480 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 144 ha Darak fire, April 2016 3,405 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1 ha Darak fire, March 2019 1,173 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Darak where it started2,927 ha reached on 2 May1.6 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 May | 41.5 °C | 23 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 3 May | 41.0 °C | 24 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 4 May | 40.9 °C | 25 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 5 May | 40.4 °C | 28 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 May | 41.0 °C | 23 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 7 May | 41.2 °C | 23 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 8 May after | 41.8 °C | 20 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 9 May after | 41.0 °C | 26 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 10 May after | 40.5 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 11 May after | 40.5 °C | 32 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 12 May after | 40.3 °C | 28 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 13 May after | 39.3 °C | 20 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 14 May after | 39.3 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 15 May after | 40.2 °C | 27 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 16 May after | 39.5 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.2 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 17 May after | 39.5 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 4 May 2024 the air beside the fire reached 70 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 36: 2.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 88Every 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 2 May 2024 and 7 May 2024: 6 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 2,908 hectares (29.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Darak (2,927 ha, 1.6 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 41.5 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 34 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.
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.