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GN · Guinea · –

Mamouroudou fire, 21 February 2021 Mamouroudou, Tokounou

Out · last detection 4 Mar 2021, 13:13 UTC

The fire started on 21 February 2021 in Mamouroudou, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,438 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 202th largest in Kankan since 2016 (of 308 with a page). Number 72 in Guinea in 2021, of 111.

Burnt area
2,438ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
21 Feb 2021 – 4 Mar 2021
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
21 Feb
2021
Heat detections
91
in a single hotspot: 173 MW
Danger at start
25
High · FWI index
Average daily power
302MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Feb4 Mar
4 Mar 2021

How it evolved, day by day

21 Feb 2021 · 103 MW · 5 24 Feb 2021 · 762 MW · 18 25 Feb 2021 · 283 MW · 16 26 Feb 2021 · 897 MW · 17 27 Feb 2021 · 115 MW · 14 2 Mar 2021 · 21 MW · 4 3 Mar 2021 · 92 MW · 7 4 Mar 2021 · 146 MW · 10
21 Feb 26 Feb 3 Mar

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
34km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.3 mm on 6 Mar.

This area had burned before

51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 13 ha in 2017, 55 ha in 2018, 886 ha in 2019, 1,195 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,255 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.5% of the area of London (24 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Mamouroudou where it started
    2,315 ha reached on 21 Feb
    1.5 %
  2. 139 ha reached on 27 Feb
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
21 Feb 34.9 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
22 Feb 34.9 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Feb 34.8 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Feb 35.5 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Feb 33.4 °C 24 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
26 Feb 34.6 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Feb 35.7 °C 19 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Feb 34.5 °C 34 % 34 km/h 0.4 mm High 33
1 Mar 36.1 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
2 Mar 36.5 °C 29 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
3 Mar 36.6 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
4 Mar 37.1 °C 28 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Mar after 36.0 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
6 Mar after 35.2 °C 37 % 32 km/h 2.3 mm Moderate 18

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 25.2, a minimum humidity of 26% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 27.

FWI at the start 25.2
Minimum humidity 26 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Konsankoro fire, March 2017
2,472 ha 6 days FWI 26.4 Min. humidity 26 % 101 km away, in 2017

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 13 Mar.

What happened to them

9 days
median duration
2,009 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.2 mm
rain at the end (median; 23 of 27 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (2,438 ha against a median of 2,009 ha) and lasted 12 days, against 9 days.

In 4 of 27, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.2 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

2.3 mmfirst rain
6 Mar2 days after it ended
34km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 4 Mar, and on 6 Mar 2.3 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 23 of 27, with a median of 2.2 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Feb 2021
After · 11 Mar 2021

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 · 91Every 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 Mamouroudou fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 February 2021 to 4 March 2021 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 February 2021 to 27 February 2021.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,438 hectares (24.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mamouroudou (2,315 ha, 1.5 %); Tokounou (139 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, class 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.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 27. Their median duration was 9 days and their median area 2,009 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 4 of 27, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.2 mm.

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

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 27 February 2021 → 4 March 2021.
  2. Start date: 24 February 2021 → 21 February 2021.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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
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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 24 February 2021 to 27 February 2021. 91 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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.