Skip to content
worldfires
GN · Guinea · →

Kolia fire, 21 April 2017 Kolia

Out · last detection 27 Apr 2017, 14:35 UTC

The fire started on 21 April 2017 in Kolia, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,989 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 76th largest in Boké since 2016 (of 237 with a page). Number 73 in Guinea in 2017, of 172.

Burnt area
2,989ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
21 Apr 2017 – 26 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
21 Apr
2017
Heat detections
125
in a single hotspot: 195 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
4.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

27 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Apr26 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

212224252627

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
45km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Kolia where it started
    3,006 ha reached on 15 Apr
    1.8 %

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)
21 Apr 36.0 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Apr 33.9 °C 42 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Apr 33.8 °C 40 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
24 Apr 34.3 °C 34 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Apr 37.2 °C 26 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
26 Apr 36.8 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Apr after 34.4 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
28 Apr after 34.7 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 33
29 Apr after 34.4 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
30 Apr after 35.4 °C 39 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
1 May after 33.9 °C 42 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
2 May after 33.0 °C 49 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 May after 34.3 °C 36 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
4 May after 34.3 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 May after 34.3 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
6 May after 37.8 °C 31 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Apr 2017
After · 3 May 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 · 125Every 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 Guinea ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kolia fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 21 April 2017 and 26 April 2017: 6 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 2,989 hectares (29.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Kolia (3,006 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.2 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea (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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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 ADM3 (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.