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Marella fire, February 2020 Oure Kaba, Marella

Out · last detection 17 Feb 2020, 02:51 UTC

The fire started on 10 February 2020 in Marella, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,805 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 91th largest in Faranah since 2016 (of 208 with a page). Number 58 in Guinea in 2020, of 120.

The power measured by the satellite is low (24.6 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
2,805ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
10 Feb 2020 – 17 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
10 Feb
2020
Heat detections
80
in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start
41
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
510MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Feb 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Feb17 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

1011121314151617

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
41km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,576 ha in 2016, 2,138 ha in 2017, 33 ha in 2018, 433 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,357 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Oure Kaba
    1,881 ha reached on 13 Feb
    1.1 %
  2. Marella where it started
    943 ha reached on 10 Feb
    1.4 %

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 Feb 34.3 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Feb 34.5 °C 18 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Feb 34.4 °C 15 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
13 Feb 35.3 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
14 Feb 35.5 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Feb 35.8 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
16 Feb 36.8 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
17 Feb 37.0 °C 12 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
18 Feb after 35.8 °C 24 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Feb after 36.1 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Feb after 36.7 °C 24 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Feb after 36.2 °C 26 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
22 Feb after 35.1 °C 32 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
23 Feb after 36.9 °C 28 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
24 Feb after 38.3 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
25 Feb after 38.1 °C 11 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
26 Feb after 38.7 °C 8 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
27 Feb after 36.5 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Feb 2020
After · 24 Feb 2020

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 · 80Every 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 Marella fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 February 2020 and 17 February 2020: 8 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 2,805 hectares (28.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Oure Kaba (1,881 ha, 1.1 %); Marella (943 ha, 1.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.0 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 55, class Extreme.
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.