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Gouiné fire, December 2017 Gouiné, Guintéguéla, Sifié

Out · last detection 7 Jan 2018, 13:13 UTC

The fire started on 13 December 2017 in Gouiné, Côte d’Ivoire, and satellites saw it burning for 26 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 25,038 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Montagnes since 2016 (of 123 with a page). The largest in Côte d’Ivoire in 2017, of 174.

Burnt area
25,038ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
26days
13 Dec 2017 – 7 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
3
sub-prefectures
Started on
13 Dec
2017
Heat detections
829
in a single hotspot: 209 MW
Danger at start
21
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
6.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Dec7 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

131415161718192021222324252627282930311234567

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
34km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,126 ha in 2016, 33 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 6,687 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Gouiné where it started
    17,686 ha reached on 13 Dec
    13 %
  2. Guintéguéla
    7,481 ha reached on 13 Dec
    5.1 %
  3. Sifié
    29 ha reached on 27 Dec
    0.1 %

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)
13 Dec 34.3 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
14 Dec 33.8 °C 42 % 25 km/h 1.6 mm Low 9
15 Dec 30.5 °C 54 % 29 km/h 3.1 mm Very low 2
16 Dec 34.6 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 14
17 Dec 36.0 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 21
18 Dec 35.5 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
19 Dec 34.5 °C 32 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
20 Dec 34.2 °C 34 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Dec 33.7 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
22 Dec 31.3 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
23 Dec 32.2 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
24 Dec 32.2 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
25 Dec 32.7 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Dec 33.5 °C 21 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
27 Dec 35.2 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
28 Dec 35.2 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
29 Dec 34.9 °C 31 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
30 Dec 35.7 °C 17 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
31 Dec 34.8 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
1 Jan 34.0 °C 15 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Jan 34.2 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
3 Jan 33.6 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Jan 34.0 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Jan 34.7 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Jan 35.2 °C 18 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Jan 35.1 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
8 Jan after 35.0 °C 30 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
9 Jan after 35.0 °C 25 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 Jan after 34.7 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 Jan after 34.9 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Jan after 34.9 °C 9 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Jan after 34.4 °C 8 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
14 Jan after 34.5 °C 10 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
15 Jan after 35.1 °C 15 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
16 Jan after 36.1 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
17 Jan after 34.2 °C 39 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 30

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Dec 2017
After · 14 Jan 2018

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 · 829Every 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 Côte d’Ivoire ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Gouiné fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 13 December 2017 and 7 January 2018: 26 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 25,038 hectares (250.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Gouiné (17,686 ha, 13 %); Guintéguéla (7,481 ha, 5.1 %); Sifié (29 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.0 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Côte d’Ivoire (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.

Emergency number: 180

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
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We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 180.

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.