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Fouli fire, 7 October 2016 Fouli

Out · last detection 11 Oct 2016, 11:28 UTC

The fire started on 7 October 2016 in Fouli, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,206 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 12th largest in Lac since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 45 in Chad in 2016, of 220.

Burnt area
4,206ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
7 Oct 2016 – 10 Oct 2016
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
7 Oct
2016
Heat detections
88
in a single hotspot: 647 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Oct 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 7 Oct10 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

7891011

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

The weather it burned in

42°high
41km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Fouli where it started
    3,713 ha reached on 7 Oct
    0.5 %

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)
7 Oct 40.7 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
8 Oct 41.5 °C 9 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
9 Oct 40.8 °C 10 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
10 Oct 41.7 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
11 Oct after 42.2 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
12 Oct after 40.1 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Oct after 41.2 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
14 Oct after 41.6 °C 3 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81
15 Oct after 40.9 °C 4 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 85
16 Oct after 41.3 °C 5 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
17 Oct after 40.7 °C 6 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 85
18 Oct after 40.5 °C 8 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 91
19 Oct after 39.1 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Oct after 39.6 °C 9 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 81

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 30 Sept 2016
After · 17 Oct 2016

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 · 88Every 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 Chad ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Fouli fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 7 October 2016 and 10 October 2016: 4 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 4,206 hectares (42.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Fouli (3,713 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 41.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 70, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chad (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 ADM2 (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.