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Madina do Boé fire, 28 April 2016 Madina do Boé

Out · last detection 16 May 2016, 14:24 UTC

The fire started on 28 April 2016 in Madina do Boé, Guinea-Bissau, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,951 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the largest fire in Gabú since 2016 (of 162 with a page). Number 2 in Guinea-Bissau in 2016, of 46.

Burnt area
5,951ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
28 Apr 2016 – 16 May 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sectors
Started on
28 Apr
2016
Heat detections
189
in a single hotspot: 207 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
5.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 May 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Apr16 May

How it evolved, day by day

281234567891011121316

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
47km/h · peak gust
29%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. Madina do Boé where it started
    5,617 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 37.3 °C 35 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
29 Apr 37.0 °C 36 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
30 Apr 38.4 °C 29 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 May 39.3 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 May 36.8 °C 34 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 May 37.1 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
4 May 36.4 °C 37 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
5 May 38.5 °C 30 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
6 May 35.9 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 May 36.4 °C 32 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
8 May 36.9 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
9 May 37.6 °C 32 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 May 38.1 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
11 May 38.6 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 May 37.7 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
13 May 36.8 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 May 36.5 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 May 36.1 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
16 May 35.7 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 May after 37.4 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
18 May after 37.7 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
19 May after 35.7 °C 45 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 36
20 May after 34.8 °C 49 % 27 km/h 0.4 mm High 29
21 May after 33.2 °C 40 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 May after 35.0 °C 40 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 May after 36.7 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 May after 36.4 °C 30 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 May after 35.9 °C 33 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
26 May after 33.2 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.8 mm High 26

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Apr 2016
After · 23 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 · 189Every 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-Bissau ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Madina do Boé fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 28 April 2016 to 16 May 2016 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 1 May 2016 to 9 May 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,951 hectares (59.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Madina do Boé (5,617 ha, 2.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.3 °C, humidity dropped to 29 % and gusts hit 47 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 Guinea-Bissau (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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.