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CI · Côte d’Ivoire · –

Gouiné fire, 25 January 2020 Gouiné, Guintéguéla

Out · last detection 17 Feb 2020, 13:56 UTC

The fire started on 25 January 2020 in Gouiné, Côte d’Ivoire, and satellites saw it burning for 23 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 14,871 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Montagnes since 2016 (of 113 with a page). Number 2 in Côte d’Ivoire in 2020, of 159.

Burnt area
14,871ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
23days
25 Jan 2020 – 16 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
25 Jan
2020
Heat detections
434
in a single hotspot: 147 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
164MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 25 Jan16 Feb
17 Feb 2020

How it evolved, day by day

25 Jan 2020 · 17 MW · 6 26 Jan 2020 · 6 MW · 3 27 Jan 2020 · 4 MW · 1 28 Jan 2020 · 37 MW · 5 29 Jan 2020 · 7 MW · 3 30 Jan 2020 · 61 MW · 6 31 Jan 2020 · 63 MW · 12 1 Feb 2020 · 204 MW · 41 2 Feb 2020 · 321 MW · 41 3 Feb 2020 · 681 MW · 79 4 Feb 2020 · 762 MW · 79 5 Feb 2020 · 195 MW · 52 6 Feb 2020 · 553 MW · 19 7 Feb 2020 · 159 MW · 29 8 Feb 2020 · 42 MW · 12 9 Feb 2020 · 61 MW · 17 10 Feb 2020 · 5 MW · 3 13 Feb 2020 · 1 MW · 1 14 Feb 2020 · 418 MW · 21 15 Feb 2020 · 1 MW · 1 16 Feb 2020 · 2 MW · 1 17 Feb 2020 · 17 MW · 2
25 Jan 30 Jan 4 Feb 9 Feb 16 Feb

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
38km/h · peak gust
4%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.2 mm on 21 Feb.

This area had burned before

77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,400 ha in 2016, 8,687 ha in 2017, 1,526 ha in 2018, 6,401 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 11,519 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 9.4% of the area of London (149 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Gouiné where it started
    12,287 ha reached on 25 Jan
    8.9 %
  2. 2,799 ha reached on 26 Jan
    1.9 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)

Started with Very dry air: 23 % of the area in Côte d’Ivoire

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
25 Jan 36.9 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Jan 36.8 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jan 35.9 °C 26 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Jan 36.0 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Jan 36.3 °C 17 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Jan 37.1 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
31 Jan 36.9 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Feb 35.6 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Feb 37.0 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Feb 35.8 °C 7 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
4 Feb 35.3 °C 10 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Feb 35.4 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Feb 35.2 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
7 Feb 36.0 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
8 Feb 36.2 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Feb 36.1 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Feb 35.6 °C 34 % 23 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
11 Feb 32.4 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
12 Feb 34.9 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
13 Feb 36.1 °C 8 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Feb 35.8 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Feb 36.8 °C 4 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
16 Feb 38.1 °C 6 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Feb after 38.4 °C 15 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Feb after 37.2 °C 28 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Feb after 37.9 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Feb after 38.5 °C 29 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Feb after 37.6 °C 36 % 31 km/h 4.2 mm Moderate 15

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 43.2, a minimum humidity of 12% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 20.

FWI at the start 43.2
Minimum humidity 12 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Gouiné fire, January 2016
1,079 ha 8 days FWI 44.2 Min. humidity 12 % 5 km away, in 2016

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

10 days
median duration
2,254 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
3.7 mm
rain at the end (median; 8 of 20 had it)

It was 6.6 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 23 days, against 10 days.

None of its 20 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 12 of 20, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.7 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

4.2 mmfirst rain
21 Feb5 days after it ended
38km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 16 Feb, and on 21 Feb 4.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 8 of 20, with a median of 3.7 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 18 Jan 2020
After · 23 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 · 434Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 25 January 2020 to 16 February 2020 (23 days). The perimeter dates it from 30 January 2020 to 10 February 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 14,871 hectares (148.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Gouiné (12,287 ha, 8.9 %); Guintéguéla (2,799 ha, 1.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.1 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 20. Their median duration was 10 days and their median area 2,254 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 20 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 12 of 20, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 3.7 mm.

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 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 10 February 2020 → 16 February 2020.
  2. Start date: 29 January 2020 → 25 January 2020.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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
What do you think is wrong?

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.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 2 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 30 January 2020 to 10 February 2020. 434 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.