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Manfran fire, 22 January 2021 Manfran, Firawa

Out · last detection 30 Jan 2021, 13:32 UTC

The fire started on 22 January 2021 in Manfran, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,771 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 94th largest in Faranah since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 55 in Guinea in 2021, of 111.

Burnt area
2,771ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
22 Jan 2021 – 30 Jan 2021
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
22 Jan
2021
Heat detections
73
in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
927MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

30 Jan 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jan30 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

23242526272830

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
28km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone 36 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,929 ha in 2016, 2,013 ha in 2017, 1,494 ha in 2018, 2,151 ha in 2019, 1,893 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,735 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Manfran where it started
    1,483 ha reached on 23 Jan
    1.7 %
  2. Firawa
    1,306 ha reached on 24 Jan
    3.6 %

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)
22 Jan 35.2 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Jan 34.6 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
24 Jan 34.9 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
25 Jan 36.0 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Jan 36.0 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
27 Jan 36.7 °C 13 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
28 Jan 36.0 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Jan 34.9 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
30 Jan 35.9 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
31 Jan after 35.7 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Feb after 36.1 °C 9 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Feb after 34.9 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
3 Feb after 35.3 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Feb after 35.8 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
5 Feb after 37.4 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
6 Feb after 34.0 °C 27 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Feb after 35.6 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
8 Feb after 35.6 °C 17 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
9 Feb after 36.8 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jan 2021
After · 6 Feb 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 · 73Every 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 Manfran fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 22 January 2021 and 30 January 2021: 9 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 2,771 hectares (27.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Manfran (1,483 ha, 1.7 %); Firawa (1,306 ha, 3.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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 (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 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.