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Kandi fire, 4 December 2017 Kandi, Karimama

Out · last detection 7 Dec 2017, 12:55 UTC

The fire started on 4 December 2017 in Kandi, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,300 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 83th largest in Alibori since 2016 (of 534 with a page). Number 19 in Benin in 2017, of 152.

Burnt area
3,300ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
4 Dec 2017 – 7 Dec 2017
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
4 Dec
2017
Heat detections
89
in a single hotspot: 70 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Dec 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Dec7 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

4567

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
31km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 56 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. Kandi where it started
    3,116 ha reached on 4 Dec
    0.9 %
  2. Karimama
    206 ha reached on 5 Dec
    0.0 %

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)
4 Dec 36.6 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
5 Dec 36.3 °C 11 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Dec 35.3 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
7 Dec 34.8 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Dec after 32.8 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Dec after 31.0 °C 23 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Dec after 31.3 °C 17 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
11 Dec after 32.1 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Dec after 30.9 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
13 Dec after 34.2 °C 24 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Dec after 35.8 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Dec after 36.3 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Dec after 36.1 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Dec after 35.0 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 27 Nov 2017
After · 14 Dec 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 · 89Every 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 Benin ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kandi fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 December 2017 and 7 December 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 3,300 hectares (33.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kandi (3,116 ha, 0.9 %); Karimama (206 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Benin (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 (Public Domain). 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.