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GN · Guinea · –

Diaraguerela fire, December 2023 Diaraguerela

Out · last detection 28 Dec 2023, 13:20 UTC

The fire started on 20 December 2023 in Diaraguerela, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,025 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 187th largest in Nzérékoré since 2016 (of 200 with a page). Number 73 in Guinea in 2023, of 79.

Burnt area
2,025ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
20 Dec 2023 – 28 Dec 2023
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
20 Dec
2023
Heat detections
45
in a single hotspot: 66 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
95MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Dec28 Dec
28 Dec 2023

How it evolved, day by day

24 Dec 2023 · 24 MW · 6 25 Dec 2023 · 89 MW · 13 26 Dec 2023 · 27 MW · 1 27 Dec 2023 · 293 MW · 14 28 Dec 2023 · 43 MW · 11
24 Dec 25 Dec 26 Dec 27 Dec 28 Dec

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
36km/h · peak gust
17%lowest humidity

It had gone 19 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: 775 ha in 2016, 966 ha in 2017, 930 ha in 2018, 1,343 ha in 2019, 1,266 ha in 2020, 385 ha in 2021, 211 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,775 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.3% of the area of London (20 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Diaraguerela where it started
    2,038 ha reached on 24 Dec
    1.8 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
20 Dec 29.6 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
21 Dec 29.6 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 Dec 31.5 °C 21 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
23 Dec 31.7 °C 22 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
24 Dec 32.0 °C 25 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
25 Dec 32.6 °C 27 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
26 Dec 33.2 °C 22 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
27 Dec 33.9 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
28 Dec 32.4 °C 24 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
29 Dec after 32.7 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
30 Dec after 32.3 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Dec after 32.5 °C 27 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Jan after 32.5 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
2 Jan after 33.7 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
3 Jan after 32.8 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
4 Jan after 33.9 °C 27 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
5 Jan after 33.0 °C 26 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 Jan after 33.1 °C 25 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
7 Jan after 33.5 °C 25 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 34

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 25.6, a minimum humidity of 25% and 19 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 32.

FWI at the start 25.6
Minimum humidity 25 %
Days without rain 19
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Sifié fire, December 2022
10,527 ha 23 days FWI 25.3 Min. humidity 24 % 170 km away, in 2022

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

12 days
median duration
2,474 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.5 mm
rain at the end (median; 12 of 32 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,025 ha against a median of 2,474 ha) and lasted 9 days, against 12 days.

In 20 of 32, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.5 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
36km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 28 Dec, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 12 of 32, with a median of 3.5 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Dec 2023
After · 4 Jan 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 21 December 2023 the air beside the fire reached 94 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 80: 5.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak94 µg/m³
Days over the guideline11 days
PM10257 µg/m³
Optical depth0.63
21 Dec24 Dec27 Dec30 Dec
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 45Every 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 Diaraguerela fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 December 2023 to 28 December 2023 (9 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 December 2023 to 28 December 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,025 hectares (20.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Diaraguerela (2,038 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 32. Their median duration was 12 days and their median area 2,474 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 20 of 32, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.5 mm.

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

History of this page · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Start date: 23 December 2023 → 20 December 2023.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 23 December 2023 to 28 December 2023. 45 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.