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Karimama fire, 10 January 2018 Karimama

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2018, 01:54 UTC

The fire started on 10 January 2018 in Karimama, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,378 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 36th largest in Alibori since 2016 (of 534 with a page). Number 4 in Benin in 2018, of 29.

Burnt area
5,378ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
10 Jan 2018 – 13 Jan 2018
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
10 Jan
2018
Heat detections
160
in a single hotspot: 78 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jan 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jan13 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

10111213

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
37km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

58% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,769 ha in 2016, 698 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,106 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Karimama where it started
    5,414 ha reached on 10 Jan
    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 Jan 33.1 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
11 Jan 32.4 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Jan 32.3 °C 11 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
13 Jan 31.8 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
14 Jan after 31.6 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
15 Jan after 33.0 °C 12 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Jan after 33.0 °C 11 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Jan after 33.2 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Jan after 32.9 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Jan after 34.5 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Jan after 35.0 °C 7 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Jan after 33.9 °C 6 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
22 Jan after 33.7 °C 5 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
23 Jan after 32.4 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jan 2018
After · 20 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 · 160Every 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 Karimama fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 10 January 2018 to 13 January 2018 (4 days). The perimeter dates it from 10 January 2018 to 12 January 2018.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,378 hectares (53.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Karimama (5,414 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.1 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.