Markoye fire, 25 October 2025 Markoye
The fire started on 25 October 2025 in Markoye, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 17,329 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 3th largest in Liptako since 2016 (of 222 with a page). Number 7 in Burkina Faso in 2025, of 609.
- Burnt area
- 17,329ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 25 Oct 2025 – 29 Oct 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 25 Oct
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 289
- in a single hotspot: 127 MW
- Danger at start
- 52
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.9GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 18 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,754 ha in 2022, 1,646 ha in 2023, 978 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,169 ha that had burned before.
- 936 ha Markoye fire, October 2023 1,477 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 756 ha Markoye fire, October 2022 1,173 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 727 ha Markoye fire, October 2024 1,095 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 710 ha Markoye fire, October 2023 1,184 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 598 ha Markoye fire, October 2022 1,700 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 399 ha Markoye fire, October 2022 1,226 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 251 ha Markoye fire, October 2024 1,483 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Markoye where it started16,411 ha reached on 25 Oct13 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 Oct | 40.7 °C | 9 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 26 Oct | 40.0 °C | 14 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 27 Oct | 39.4 °C | 10 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 28 Oct | 40.1 °C | 9 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 29 Oct | 40.0 °C | 10 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 30 Oct after | 39.7 °C | 8 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 31 Oct after | 39.6 °C | 10 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 55 |
| 1 Nov after | 39.4 °C | 5 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 2 Nov after | 38.9 °C | 7 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 3 Nov after | 38.2 °C | 8 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 4 Nov after | 38.0 °C | 11 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 5 Nov after | 38.0 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 58 |
| 6 Nov after | 38.8 °C | 9 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 59 |
| 7 Nov after | 38.6 °C | 14 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 8 Nov after | 38.2 °C | 17 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 28 October 2025 the air beside the fire reached 62 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 42: 2.8 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 289Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Markoye fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 25 October 2025 and 29 October 2025: 5 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 17,329 hectares (173.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Markoye (16,411 ha, 13 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 40.7 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 27 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, 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.
Report an error
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.