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Kaya fire, 29 October 2017 Kaya

Out · last detection 8 Nov 2017, 00:51 UTC

The fire started on 29 October 2017 in Kaya, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,500 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 9th largest in Lac since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 14 in Chad in 2017, of 171.

Burnt area
5,500ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
29 Oct 2017 – 7 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
1
departments
Started on
29 Oct
2017
Heat detections
211
in a single hotspot: 76 MW
Danger at start
70
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Oct7 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

29303112345678

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
45km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone 38 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 4,739 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Kaya where it started
    5,286 ha reached on 29 Oct
    1.4 %

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)
29 Oct 38.1 °C 12 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
30 Oct 37.5 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
31 Oct 37.8 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
1 Nov 38.3 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
2 Nov 38.5 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
3 Nov 37.1 °C 10 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
4 Nov 36.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
5 Nov 35.4 °C 12 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74
6 Nov 35.4 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
7 Nov 36.6 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
8 Nov after 37.2 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
9 Nov after 36.0 °C 11 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 76
10 Nov after 34.8 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 73
11 Nov after 36.5 °C 8 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
12 Nov after 38.4 °C 6 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
13 Nov after 37.6 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
14 Nov after 39.5 °C 7 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
15 Nov after 40.2 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 69
16 Nov after 40.0 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
17 Nov after 40.6 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 74

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Oct 2017
After · 14 Nov 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 · 211Every 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 Chad ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kaya fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 October 2017 and 7 November 2017: 10 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 5,500 hectares (55.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kaya (5,286 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 74, class Very extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chad (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 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). 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.