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Kouh Est fire, December 2016 Kouh Est, Kouh Ouest

Out · last detection 25 Dec 2016, 00:15 UTC

The fire started on 18 December 2016 in Kouh Est, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,493 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 14th largest in Logone Oriental since 2016 (of 51 with a page). Number 67 in Chad in 2016, of 220.

Burnt area
3,493ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
18 Dec 2016 – 25 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
18 Dec
2016
Heat detections
150
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Dec25 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1819202122232425

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
35km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 48 days 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. Kouh Est where it started
    2,684 ha reached on 16 Dec
    1.7 %
  2. Kouh Ouest
    831 ha reached on 19 Dec
    0.4 %

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)
18 Dec 34.8 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Dec 33.9 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Dec 34.3 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
21 Dec 34.1 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Dec 34.2 °C 18 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Dec 35.1 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Dec 35.7 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
25 Dec 31.3 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
26 Dec after 28.2 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Dec after 30.3 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Dec after 31.6 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Dec after 32.1 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Dec after 33.3 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Dec after 32.4 °C 21 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
1 Jan after 32.3 °C 21 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Jan after 32.8 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Jan after 33.1 °C 21 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 Jan after 33.6 °C 19 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 11 Dec 2016
After · 1 Jan 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 · 150Every 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 Kouh Est fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 December 2016 and 25 December 2016: 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 3,493 hectares (34.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kouh Est (2,684 ha, 1.7 %); Kouh Ouest (831 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 45, class Very high.
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.