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Fouli fire, 17 October 2017 Fouli

Out · last detection 21 Oct 2017, 12:37 UTC

The fire started on 17 October 2017 in Fouli, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,169 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 17th largest in Lac since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 51 in Chad in 2017, of 171.

Burnt area
3,169ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
17 Oct 2017 – 20 Oct 2017
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
17 Oct
2017
Heat detections
53
in a single hotspot: 412 MW
Danger at start
74
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Oct 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 17 Oct20 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

1718192021

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
46km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

38% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,205 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Fouli where it started
    3,186 ha reached on 17 Oct
    0.4 %

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)
17 Oct 37.5 °C 14 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
18 Oct 36.6 °C 15 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
19 Oct 37.0 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
20 Oct 37.4 °C 14 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
21 Oct after 38.5 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
22 Oct after 38.5 °C 9 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
23 Oct after 39.0 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
24 Oct after 38.1 °C 8 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
25 Oct after 38.7 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
26 Oct after 36.4 °C 13 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 80
27 Oct after 35.7 °C 17 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
28 Oct after 37.2 °C 15 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
29 Oct after 37.2 °C 12 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
30 Oct after 36.5 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 10 Oct 2017
After · 27 Oct 2017

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 · 53Every 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 17 October 2017 and 20 October 2017: 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 3,169 hectares (31.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Fouli (3,186 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, 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.