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Matéri fire, January 2020 Matéri, Tanguiéta

Out · last detection 13 Jan 2020, 02:06 UTC

The fire started on 4 January 2020 in Matéri, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 8,614 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 37th largest in Atakora since 2016 (of 523 with a page). Number 3 in Benin in 2020, of 94.

Burnt area
8,614ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
4 Jan 2020 – 13 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
4 Jan
2020
Heat detections
226
in a single hotspot: 48 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.0GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Jan 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Jan13 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

45678910111213

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
40km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

17% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 122 ha in 2016, 1,383 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Matéri where it started
    7,898 ha reached on 4 Jan
    4.4 %
  2. Tanguiéta
    403 ha reached on 11 Jan
    0.1 %

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)
4 Jan 28.7 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
5 Jan 31.5 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Jan 31.6 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
7 Jan 33.4 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Jan 34.5 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
9 Jan 35.4 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
10 Jan 35.1 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Jan 36.3 °C 19 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
12 Jan 36.7 °C 26 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
13 Jan 36.0 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Jan after 34.4 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
15 Jan after 35.4 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Jan after 35.5 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
17 Jan after 34.5 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
18 Jan after 33.9 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
19 Jan after 32.2 °C 18 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
20 Jan after 33.8 °C 20 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Jan after 35.9 °C 19 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Jan after 36.7 °C 18 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Jan after 36.0 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Dec 2019
After · 20 Jan 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 · 226Every 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 Benin ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Matéri fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 January 2020 and 13 January 2020: 10 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 8,614 hectares (86.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Matéri (7,898 ha, 4.4 %); Tanguiéta (403 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.7 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 52, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Benin (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 (Public Domain). 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.