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Loropéni fire, 10 January 2024 Loropéni, Ouô

Out · last detection 30 Jan 2024, 13:02 UTC

The fire started on 10 January 2024 in Loropéni, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 13,436 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Djôrô since 2016 (of 47 with a page). Number 3 in Burkina Faso in 2024, of 380.

Burnt area
13,436ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
20days
10 Jan 2024 – 29 Jan 2024
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
10 Jan
2024
Heat detections
502
in a single hotspot: 99 MW
Danger at start
43
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
5.7GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Jan 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jan29 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

10131415161718192021222324252627282930

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
42km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 43 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

1% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 83 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Loropéni where it started
    8,469 ha reached on 4 Jan
    4.0 %
  2. Ouô
    5,056 ha reached on 8 Jan
    2.0 %

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)
10 Jan 36.0 °C 20 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Jan 36.2 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Jan 36.5 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Jan 36.4 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
14 Jan 36.4 °C 11 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
15 Jan 36.0 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
16 Jan 35.6 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
17 Jan 35.6 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
18 Jan 35.6 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Jan 35.7 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
20 Jan 37.6 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
21 Jan 36.7 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
22 Jan 37.1 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Jan 36.8 °C 12 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
24 Jan 36.8 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jan 34.9 °C 13 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
26 Jan 33.9 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Jan 33.1 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
28 Jan 33.4 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
29 Jan 34.2 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
30 Jan after 34.7 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
31 Jan after 35.4 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Feb after 34.7 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
2 Feb after 34.4 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
3 Feb after 34.1 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
4 Feb after 33.8 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
5 Feb after 33.3 °C 12 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
6 Feb after 34.1 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
7 Feb after 34.7 °C 13 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Feb after 35.7 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jan 2024
After · 5 Feb 2024

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 · 502Every 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 Loropéni fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 January 2024 and 29 January 2024: 20 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 13,436 hectares (134.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Loropéni (8,469 ha, 4.0 %); Ouô (5,056 ha, 2.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 59, 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.

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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.