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Douako fire, 26 January 2020 Douako, Albadariah

Out · last detection 5 Feb 2020, 14:22 UTC

The fire started on 26 January 2020 in Douako, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,082 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 48th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 388 with a page). Number 11 in Guinea in 2020, of 120.

Burnt area
5,082ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
26 Jan 2020 – 4 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
26 Jan
2020
Heat detections
236
in a single hotspot: 122 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Feb 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 26 Jan4 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

26272829303112345

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
37km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,285 ha in 2016, 2,083 ha in 2017, 3,255 ha in 2018, 2,874 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,638 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Douako where it started
    3,977 ha reached on 26 Jan
    1.4 %
  2. Albadariah
    1,136 ha reached on 30 Jan
    1.6 %

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)
26 Jan 34.9 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
27 Jan 34.6 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Jan 33.5 °C 15 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jan 34.3 °C 15 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Jan 34.7 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jan 35.7 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
1 Feb 35.3 °C 16 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Feb 35.0 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Feb 34.6 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
4 Feb 34.7 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
5 Feb after 34.5 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
6 Feb after 34.7 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
7 Feb after 35.2 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
8 Feb after 34.6 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Feb after 34.5 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Feb after 34.2 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Feb after 34.1 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Feb after 34.3 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Feb after 35.8 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Feb after 35.7 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 19 Jan 2020
After · 11 Feb 2020

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 · 236Every 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 26 January 2020 and 4 February 2020: 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 5,082 hectares (50.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Douako (3,977 ha, 1.4 %); Albadariah (1,136 ha, 1.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, class Very 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.

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.