Skip to content
worldfires
GN · Guinea · →

Kakony fire, 24 April 2018 Kakony

Out · last detection 3 May 2018, 02:32 UTC

The fire started on 24 April 2018 in Kakony, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,589 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 43th largest in Boké since 2016 (of 237 with a page). Number 30 in Guinea in 2018, of 107.

Burnt area
3,589ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
24 Apr 2018 – 3 May 2018
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
24 Apr
2018
Heat detections
100
in a single hotspot: 278 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 May 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 24 Apr3 May

How it evolved, day by day

2426272930123

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
37km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

12% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 422 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kakony where it started
    3,611 ha reached on 24 Apr
    2.3 %

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)
24 Apr 36.9 °C 27 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
25 Apr 37.8 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Apr 36.1 °C 31 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Apr 36.5 °C 36 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Apr 37.3 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
29 Apr 37.5 °C 28 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
30 Apr 38.3 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 May 36.2 °C 30 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
2 May 37.7 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 May 37.2 °C 28 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 May after 36.9 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 May after 35.1 °C 36 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 May after 37.1 °C 26 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 May after 35.8 °C 32 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 May after 37.7 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
9 May after 36.2 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
10 May after 37.0 °C 27 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
11 May after 36.7 °C 25 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
12 May after 35.4 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 May after 37.3 °C 32 % 23 km/h 0.5 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 17 Apr 2018
After · 10 May 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 · 100Every 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 Guinea ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kakony fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 April 2018 and 3 May 2018: 10 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 3,589 hectares (35.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kakony (3,611 ha, 2.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 37 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 Guinea (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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.