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Douako fire, 6 February 2019 Douako, Tokounou

Out · last detection 15 Feb 2019, 13:39 UTC

The fire started on 6 February 2019 in Douako, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,068 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 388 with a page). Number 5 in Guinea in 2019, of 123.

Burnt area
9,068ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
6 Feb 2019 – 15 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
6 Feb
2019
Heat detections
288
in a single hotspot: 111 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Feb 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 6 Feb15 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112131415

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
37km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 606 ha in 2016, 2,813 ha in 2017, 3,553 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 5,317 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Douako where it started
    8,947 ha reached on 4 Feb
    3.1 %
  2. Tokounou
    177 ha reached on 6 Feb
    0.2 %

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)
6 Feb 36.9 °C 20 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Feb 36.8 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
8 Feb 36.5 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
9 Feb 36.0 °C 23 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
10 Feb 35.8 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Feb 36.4 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
12 Feb 35.3 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Feb 36.7 °C 6 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
14 Feb 36.7 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
15 Feb 37.4 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Feb after 38.6 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Feb after 37.3 °C 23 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Feb after 37.0 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Feb after 37.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
20 Feb after 34.7 °C 19 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Feb after 36.3 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
22 Feb after 37.7 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Feb after 37.1 °C 6 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Feb after 36.1 °C 11 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
25 Feb after 36.4 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Jan 2019
After · 22 Feb 2019

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 · 288Every 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 Douako fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 6 February 2019 and 15 February 2019: 10 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 9,068 hectares (90.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Douako (8,947 ha, 3.1 %); Tokounou (177 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.4 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
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.

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 (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.