Lalgaye fire, 11 January 2022 Lalgaye, Ouargaye
The fire started on 11 January 2022 in Lalgaye, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,846 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 14th largest in Nakambé since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 9 in Burkina Faso in 2022, of 109.
- Burnt area
- 3,846ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 11 Jan 2022 – 16 Jan 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 11 Jan
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 106
- in a single hotspot: 61 MW
- Danger at start
- 55
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 701MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
59% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,815 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,265 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Lalgaye where it started3,705 ha reached on 11 Jan7.2 %
-
164 ha reached on 14 Jan0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Jan | 33.9 °C | 6 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 12 Jan | 35.2 °C | 5 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 13 Jan | 36.6 °C | 6 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 14 Jan | 35.9 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 15 Jan | 35.1 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 16 Jan | 34.1 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 17 Jan after | 33.0 °C | 12 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 18 Jan after | 29.7 °C | 13 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 19 Jan after | 31.4 °C | 14 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 20 Jan after | 31.6 °C | 13 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 21 Jan after | 31.7 °C | 11 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 22 Jan after | 32.4 °C | 10 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 23 Jan after | 32.5 °C | 9 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 24 Jan after | 33.1 °C | 9 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 25 Jan after | 32.4 °C | 10 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 61 |
| 26 Jan after | 32.9 °C | 10 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 106Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 4,621 haLalgaye11 November 2025 · 10 days · 12 km away
- 4,419 haYargatenga2 November 2025 · 9 days · 28 km away
- 5,872 haYondé10 November 2025 · 11 days · 29 km away
- 8,062 haOuargaye8 November 2025 · 17 days · 30 km away
- 4,451 haYondéDecember 2023 · 4 days · 31 km away
- 9,206 haYargatenga9 November 2025 · 13 days · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lalgaye fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 11 January 2022 and 16 January 2022: 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 3,846 hectares (38.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lalgaye (3,705 ha, 7.2 %); Ouargaye (164 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Burkina Faso (OCHA COD-AB). 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
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 OCHA COD-AB (Institut Geographique Burkina (IGB)) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-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.