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BJ · Benin · –

Karimama fire, 29 October 2026 Karimama, Malanville

Burning · last detection 7 Nov 2026, 14:01 UTC

Satellites first detected fire on 29 October 2026 in Karimama, Benin. It has been active for 10 days, with 90 heat detections and an area with fire of about 1,190 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across 2 municipalities.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in August 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

The power measured by the satellite is low (16.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

GWIS (Copernicus) has not yet published the perimeter of this fire. It rebuilds it from hotspots, which can take several days, and it does not always arrive. For now the area is the one rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per pixel). If the perimeter arrives, this page picks it up on its own and keeps the same address.

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 7 Nov 2026, 14:01 UTC. Everything suggests it is still burning. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

Wind, humidity and rain for the next 72 h

Area with fire
≈ 1,190ha
rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
Duration
10days
29 Oct 2026 – 7 Nov 2026
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
29 Oct
2026
Heat detections
90
in a single hotspot: 17 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
50MW
detected power per day, on average

The next 72 hours

The wind is blowing from the east and pushing westwards; no sharp shifts are expected until Tue 10, 20:00.

ECMWF IFS 0.25° at the centre of the fire · computed 7 Nov 2026, 18:58 UTC

Sat 7, 21:00 – Sun 8, 07:00, local time

No overnight recovery: humidity stays at or below 52 %

Nights usually moisten the vegetation and the fire calms down. Tonight humidity does not reach 55 %, so it may stay active in the small hours.

Sun 8, 20:00 – Mon 9, 07:00, local time

No overnight recovery: humidity stays at or below 49 %

Nights usually moisten the vegetation and the fire calms down. Tonight humidity does not reach 55 %, so it may stay active in the small hours.

Mon 9, 20:00 – Tue 10, 07:00, local time

No overnight recovery: humidity stays at or below 45 %

Nights usually moisten the vegetation and the fire calms down. Tonight humidity does not reach 55 %, so it may stay active in the small hours.

Checked, no warning: no wind shifts of more than 60° no useful rain expected (0.0 mm in 72 h)

Hour by hour, local time

Tap the strip to see each hour

Mean wind Gusts where it blows to Relative humidity Night (8 pm to 8 am) Rain (mm) · chance in %

Where is it blowing? The next 48 h

geoBoundaries/Map Maker Ltd., Stanford earthworks (Public Domain); OCHA COD-AB/IGNN (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-IGO))

At this hour

Places the fan reaches

    Is it heading my way?

    We compare your point with the fan for each hour. Your location never leaves your device.

    or tap the map

    This is not an official warning. It is a global model forecast with cells of about 25 km, at the centre of the fire: it cannot see valley winds or the winds the fire itself creates. The fan shows where the wind blows, not where the fire will spread. If in doubt, follow what the authorities say.

    Forecast: ECMWF IFS 0.25° (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), served by our own Open-Meteo instance; the chance of rain comes from the ECMWF ensemble. Variables: wind and gusts at 10 m, wind at 850 hPa, relative humidity and temperature at 2 m, rain. Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0).

    Fire: VIIRS (NASA FIRMS); hotspots from the last 24 h: VIIRS from NASA FIRMS. Boundaries: geoBoundaries/Map Maker Ltd., Stanford earthworks (Public Domain); OCHA COD-AB/IGNN (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-IGO)).

    How it is worked out: wind shift = a change of more than 60° in 6 h or less, with at least 15 km/h before and after; no overnight recovery = peak humidity between 8 pm and 8 am stays below 55 %; useful rain = 2 mm or more in 6 h. The fan opens 18° plus however much the wind varies within ±3 h and reaches 25 km beyond the edge of the fire: one model cell, not a rate of spread. Methodology

    Where it burned

    HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Oct7 Nov
    7 Nov 2026

    How it evolved, day by day

    29 Oct 2026 · 62 MW · 14 30 Oct 2026 · 25 MW · 6 31 Oct 2026 · 17 MW · 4 1 Nov 2026 · 17 MW · 4 2 Nov 2026 · 10 MW · 2 3 Nov 2026 · 71 MW · 13 4 Nov 2026 · 3 MW · 1 5 Nov 2026 · 59 MW · 8 6 Nov 2026 · 28 MW · 9 7 Nov 2026 · 208 MW · 28
    29 Oct 31 Oct 2 Nov 4 Nov 7 Nov

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

    The weather it burned in

    40°high
    42km/h · peak gust
    12%lowest humidity

    It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

    What happened to each town

    1. Karimama where it started
      994 ha reached on 29 Oct
      0.2 %
    2. 196 ha reached on 29 Oct
      0.1 %

    Area with fire inside each municipality, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until the official perimeter arrives. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives

    Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
    29 Oct 38.5 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
    30 Oct 38.8 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
    31 Oct 39.5 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
    1 Nov 40.2 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
    2 Nov 39.9 °C 20 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
    3 Nov 39.6 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 51
    4 Nov 39.5 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
    5 Nov 39.7 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
    6 Nov 40.4 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
    7 Nov 40.0 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

    Before and after, from space

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

    Before · 22 Oct 2026
    After · 6 Nov 2026

    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 · 90Every 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, it burned from 29 October 2026 to 7 November 2026 (10 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.
    How much area did it burn?
    There is no perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 1,190 hectares with fire (11.9 km²), a rough figure; GWIS will give its own when it publishes the perimeter, which can take several days.
    Which municipalities burned?
    The fire entered 2 municipalities: Karimama (994 ha, 0.2 %); Malanville (196 ha, 0.1 %).
    Is the Karimama fire still active?
    Yes: satellites detected fire on 7 Nov 2026, 14:01 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
    What was the weather like?
    During the fire the temperature reached 40.4 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 57, class Extreme.
    What weather is expected at the fire over the next 72 hours?
    The wind is blowing from the east and pushing westwards; no sharp shifts are expected until Tue 10, 20:00. No overnight recovery: humidity stays at or below 52 % (Sat 7, 21:00 – Sun 8, 07:00). No overnight recovery: humidity stays at or below 49 % (Sun 8, 20:00 – Mon 9, 07:00). No overnight recovery: humidity stays at or below 45 % (Mon 9, 20:00 – Tue 10, 07:00). Times are local time at the fire. ECMWF IFS forecast (Open-Meteo) computed 7 Nov 2026, 18:58 UTC; this is not an official warning.
    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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    How we know this
    • No perimeter yet: the area (≈ 1,190 ha) is estimated by counting VIIRS pixels with fire, about 14 ha each.
    • Dates of the first and last VIIRS detection of the cluster. 90 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
    • Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.

    How we build fire pages: methodology

    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.