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Lôgbou fire, 29 October 2017 Lôgbou

Out · last detection 1 Nov 2017, 12:30 UTC

The fire started on 29 October 2017 in Lôgbou, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,131 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 9th largest in Tapoa since 2016 (of 260 with a page). Number 8 in Burkina Faso in 2017, of 149.

The power measured by the satellite is low (22.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
4,131ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
29 Oct 2017 – 1 Nov 2017
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
29 Oct
2017
Heat detections
64
in a single hotspot: 22 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
711MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

1 Nov 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Oct1 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

29311

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
30km/h · peak gust
19%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

17% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 700 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Lôgbou where it started
    4,156 ha reached on 29 Oct
    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)
29 Oct 35.9 °C 20 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Oct 36.5 °C 23 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
31 Oct 37.5 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
1 Nov 37.5 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
2 Nov after 37.5 °C 11 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Nov after 37.7 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
4 Nov after 36.7 °C 30 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Nov after 36.3 °C 29 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
6 Nov after 37.1 °C 11 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
7 Nov after 36.4 °C 12 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Nov after 37.2 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
9 Nov after 37.0 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Nov after 37.0 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Nov after 37.0 °C 9 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Oct 2017
After · 8 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 · 64Every 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 Burkina Faso ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Lôgbou fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 October 2017 and 1 November 2017: 4 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 4,131 hectares (41.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Lôgbou (4,156 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.5 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 38, class High.
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.

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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 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.