Édéa I fire, January 2020 Édéa I
The fire started on 23 January 2020 in Édéa I, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,048 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 3th largest in Littoral since 2016 (of 24 with a page). Number 18 in Cameroon in 2020, of 268.
- Burnt area
- 3,048ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 23 Jan 2020 – 29 Jan 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 23 Jan
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 100
- in a single hotspot: 149 MW
- Danger at start
- 2
- Very low · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.7GW
- 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 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.0 mm on 1 Feb.
This area had burned before
45% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 781 ha in 2016, 606 ha in 2017.
- 756 ha Édéa I fire, January 2016 1,437 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 606 ha Édéa I fire, February 2017 1,052 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 25 ha Édéa I fire, February 2016 1,090 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Édéa I where it started3,068 ha reached on 23 Jan3.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Jan | 33.0 °C | 64 % | 20 km/h | 1.5 mm | Very low 2 |
| 24 Jan | 35.9 °C | 32 % | 31 km/h | 0.6 mm | Low 11 |
| 25 Jan | 34.8 °C | 38 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 11 |
| 26 Jan | 34.8 °C | 37 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 27 Jan | 33.8 °C | 51 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 28 Jan | 33.9 °C | 50 % | 30 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 29 Jan | 33.1 °C | 53 % | 24 km/h | 0.1 mm | Low 11 |
| 30 Jan after | 33.0 °C | 58 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Low 10 |
| 31 Jan after | 32.7 °C | 64 % | 35 km/h | 0.8 mm | Low 7 |
| 1 Feb after | 33.5 °C | 61 % | 24 km/h | 1.0 mm | Low 5 |
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 · 100Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,632 haÉdéa I10 February 2023 · 12 days · 2 km away
- 1,437 haÉdéa I26 January 2016 · 8 days · 4 km away
- 1,322 haÉdéa I13 February 2016 · 12 days · 6 km away
- 1,850 haÉdéa IJanuary 2021 · 9 days · 7 km away
- 2,051 haÉdéa I16 February 2023 · 5 days · 9 km away
- 1,389 haDizanguéJanuary 2016 · 8 days · 31 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Édéa I fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2020 and 29 January 2020: 7 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 3,048 hectares (30.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Édéa I (3,068 ha, 3.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 13, class Moderate.
- 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.