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Karimama fire, 22 November 2019 Karimama

Out · last detection 29 Nov 2019, 13:58 UTC

The fire started on 22 November 2019 in Karimama, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,908 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 22th largest in Alibori since 2016 (of 534 with a page). Number 10 in Benin in 2019, of 120.

Burnt area
6,908ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
22 Nov 2019 – 29 Nov 2019
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
22 Nov
2019
Heat detections
237
in a single hotspot: 84 MW
Danger at start
40
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
3.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

29 Nov 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Nov29 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

2223242526272829

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
40km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 25 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

22% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,163 ha in 2016, 709 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,533 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Karimama where it started
    6,942 ha reached on 22 Nov
    1.1 %

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)
22 Nov 38.4 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Nov 38.9 °C 18 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Nov 39.1 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Nov 39.0 °C 18 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
26 Nov 39.0 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Nov 38.6 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
28 Nov 37.6 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
29 Nov 36.8 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
30 Nov after 36.7 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
1 Dec after 36.4 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
2 Dec after 35.8 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
3 Dec after 35.7 °C 17 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
4 Dec after 35.1 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Dec after 35.1 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
6 Dec after 36.1 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
7 Dec after 35.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Dec after 35.3 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Dec after 35.7 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Nov 2019
After · 6 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 · 237Every 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?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 November 2019 and 29 November 2019: 8 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 6,908 hectares (69.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Karimama (6,942 ha, 1.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.1 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 40 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.