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BJ · Benin · →

Kandi fire, 10 December 2019 Kandi

Out · last detection 11 Dec 2019, 13:32 UTC

The fire started on 10 December 2019 in Kandi, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,107 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 92th largest in Alibori since 2016 (of 534 with a page). Number 33 in Benin in 2019, of 120.

Burnt area
3,107ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
3days
10 Dec 2019 – 12 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
10 Dec
2019
Heat detections
71
in a single hotspot: 63 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

11 Dec 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Dec12 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1011

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
35km/h · peak gust
12%lowest humidity

It had gone 44 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

5% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 143 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kandi where it started
    3,128 ha reached on 10 Dec
    0.9 %

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)
10 Dec 35.2 °C 15 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
11 Dec 34.8 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
12 Dec 34.0 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Dec after 32.9 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Dec after 33.0 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Dec after 33.4 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
16 Dec after 33.9 °C 10 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
17 Dec after 34.0 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
18 Dec after 33.6 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
19 Dec after 33.9 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
20 Dec after 33.9 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
21 Dec after 34.1 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
22 Dec after 34.3 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Dec 2019
After · 19 Dec 2019

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 · 71Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 10 December 2019 to 12 December 2019 (3 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 December 2019 to 11 December 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,107 hectares (31.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kandi (3,128 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
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.