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Matéri fire, January 2022 Matéri, Tanguiéta

Out · last detection 18 Jan 2022, 13:14 UTC

The fire started on 8 January 2022 in Matéri, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,229 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 87th largest in Atakora since 2016 (of 523 with a page). Number 20 in Benin in 2022, of 97.

Burnt area
4,229ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
8 Jan 2022 – 18 Jan 2022
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
8 Jan
2022
Heat detections
163
in a single hotspot: 97 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Jan 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Jan18 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

911121314151618

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
40km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

It had gone 58 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

47% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 8 ha in 2016, 867 ha in 2017, 1,800 ha in 2019, 1,546 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,989 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Matéri where it started
    3,583 ha reached on 9 Jan
    2.0 %
  2. Tanguiéta
    672 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)
8 Jan 34.6 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
9 Jan 34.1 °C 12 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
10 Jan 35.4 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
11 Jan 35.1 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
12 Jan 36.0 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Jan 36.2 °C 8 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
14 Jan 36.3 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
15 Jan 35.3 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
16 Jan 34.4 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Jan 33.7 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
18 Jan 30.8 °C 15 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Jan after 31.7 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
20 Jan after 32.1 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
21 Jan after 31.7 °C 12 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
22 Jan after 32.7 °C 10 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
23 Jan after 33.2 °C 11 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Jan after 33.6 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
25 Jan after 32.7 °C 11 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
26 Jan after 33.6 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
27 Jan after 34.4 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
28 Jan after 34.0 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 1 Jan 2022
After · 25 Jan 2022

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 · 163Every 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?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 8 January 2022 to 18 January 2022 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 11 January 2022 to 16 January 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,229 hectares (42.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Matéri (3,583 ha, 2.0 %); Tanguiéta (672 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 40 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 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.