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Koumbia fire, 28 April 2016 Koumbia

Out · last detection 3 May 2016, 15:08 UTC

The fire started on 28 April 2016 in Koumbia, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 7,869 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 6th largest in Boké since 2016 (of 237 with a page). Number 10 in Guinea in 2016, of 172.

Burnt area
7,869ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
28 Apr 2016 – 3 May 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
28 Apr
2016
Heat detections
273
in a single hotspot: 191 MW
Danger at start
28
High · FWI index
Energy released
12.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 May 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Apr3 May

How it evolved, day by day

282930123

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
39km/h · peak gust
28%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 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. Koumbia where it started
    7,913 ha reached on 28 Apr
    2.2 %

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)
28 Apr 37.8 °C 37 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
29 Apr 37.6 °C 36 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
30 Apr 39.1 °C 28 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 May 40.0 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 May 37.8 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 May 38.0 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 May after 37.0 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 May after 39.3 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 May after 36.8 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 May after 37.3 °C 30 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 May after 37.7 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 May after 38.6 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
10 May after 38.6 °C 30 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
11 May after 38.5 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 May after 38.6 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
13 May after 37.4 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Apr 2016
After · 10 May 2016

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 · 273Every 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 Koumbia fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 April 2016 and 3 May 2016: 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 7,869 hectares (78.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Koumbia (7,913 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 40.0 °C, humidity dropped to 28 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.

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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 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.