Burned area
satellite only1,259ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 4 Feb 2025 – 17 Feb 2025
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CM · Cameroon · –
Meiganga fire, 4 February 2025 Meiganga, Garoua-Boulaï
Out · last detection 18 Feb 2025, 12:41 UTC
The fire started on 4 February 2025 in Meiganga, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,259 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 84th largest in Adamaoua since 2016 (of 168 with a page). Number 99 in Cameroon in 2025, of 158.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only14days
4 Feb 2025 to 17 Feb 2025: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 18 Feb 2025, 12:41 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only4 Feb 2025
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 4 Feb 2025
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only56
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 91 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 4 Feb 2025 – 17 Feb 2025
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only745MW
Total radiative power on 10 February 2025; hotspots that day: 21.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 10 Feb 2025
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model57.0FWI · extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 4 Feb 2025, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model35.7°C · 14% RH
High of 35.7 °C and minimum humidity of 14% on 6 February 2025; gusts of 33 km/h on 4 February 2025.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 4 Feb 2025 – 17 Feb 2025
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 10 February 2025 → 17 February 2025.
-
logStart date: 7 February 2025 → 4 February 2025.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 1,259 ha
- Dates
- 4 Feb 2025 – 17 Feb 2025
- Name
- Meiganga
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/meiganga-2025-02?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire meiganga-2025-02.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-02-04 | 1 | 6 | 35 | 22.1 | 17 | 13 | 33.1 | 0 | 57 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-02-05 | 0 | 0 | 33.7 | 21.1 | 18 | 8.1 | 17.3 | 0 | 45.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-02-06 | 0 | 0 | 35.7 | 21.2 | 14 | 13.2 | 32 | 0 | 61.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-02-07 | 1 | 8 | 33.7 | 21.3 | 18 | 10.4 | 25.6 | 0 | 56.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-02-08 | 1 | 6 | 33.8 | 18.6 | 22 | 8.5 | 19.1 | 0 | 40.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-02-09 | 7 | 173 | 34.5 | 21 | 16 | 10.8 | 28.1 | 0 | 57.4 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-02-10 | 21 | 745 | 35.3 | 21.7 | 19 | 12.7 | 24.5 | 0 | 53.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-02-11 | 0 | 0 | 34.7 | 20.8 | 18 | 11.9 | 28.8 | 0 | 51.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-02-12 | 1 | 14 | 35.2 | 19.9 | 10 | 12.9 | 30.2 | 0 | 59.5 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-02-13 | 1 | 52 | 34.6 | 19 | 14 | 12.4 | 29.2 | 0 | 56.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-02-14 | 1 | 6 | 33.3 | 19.3 | 18 | 9.7 | 20.5 | 0 | 49.1 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-02-15 | 1 | 17 | 34.2 | 19.4 | 17 | 11.3 | 22 | 0 | 51.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-02-16 | 4 | 67 | 34.7 | 19.6 | 13 | 13.9 | 24.1 | 0 | 49.6 | muy_alto | 1 |
| 2025-02-17 | 12 | 55 | 35.6 | 19.5 | 14 | 9.2 | 23.8 | 0 | 53.9 | extremo | 1 |
| 2025-02-18 | 5 | 49 | 35.4 | 18.7 | 15 | 9.2 | 20.5 | 0 | 51.3 | extremo | 0 |
| 2025-02-19 | 0 | 0 | 31.1 | 19.6 | 36 | 10.2 | 27.7 | 0 | 34.2 | alto | 0 |
| 2025-02-20 | 0 | 0 | 33.6 | 21.4 | 18 | 6.7 | 20.2 | 0 | 32.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2025-02-21 | 0 | 0 | 34.6 | 19.7 | 19 | 9.8 | 25.6 | 0 | 36.4 | alto | 0 |
| 2025-02-22 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 22.3 | 23 | 9.9 | 26.3 | 0 | 36.3 | alto | 0 |
| 2025-02-23 | 0 | 0 | 33.5 | 20.3 | 24 | 6.7 | 23.4 | 0 | 39 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-02-24 | 0 | 0 | 34.6 | 22 | 24 | 9.8 | 25.9 | 0 | 36.6 | alto | 0 |
| 2025-02-25 | 0 | 0 | 32.6 | 23 | 33 | 10.4 | 26.6 | 0 | 40 | muy_alto | 0 |
| 2025-02-26 | 0 | 0 | 30.1 | 22.1 | 43 | 11.6 | 28.8 | 0.1 | 29.5 | alto | 0 |
| 2025-02-27 | 0 | 0 | 34.6 | 21.5 | 16 | 11.6 | 22.7 | 0 | 46.1 | muy_alto | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 1,259ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 14days
- 4 Feb 2025 – 17 Feb 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- communes
- Started on
- 4 Feb
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 56
- in a single hotspot: 91 MW
- Danger at start
- 57
- Extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 100MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
4 Feb17 Feb
18 Feb 2025
How it evolved, day by day
4 Feb
10 Feb
16 Feb
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
33km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 463 ha in 2019, 719 ha in 2021, 405 ha in 2022, 1,238 ha in 2023, 917 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,250 ha that had burned before.
- 1,238 ha Meiganga fire, February 2023 5,750 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 917 ha Meiganga fire, March 2024 2,490 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 719 ha Meiganga fire, February 2021 2,936 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 463 ha Meiganga fire, February 2019 1,039 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 405 ha Meiganga fire, February 2022 1,654 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Meiganga where it started1,209 ha reached on 4 Feb0.2 %
-
57 ha reached on 10 Feb0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
People and buildings inside the perimeter
GHSL 2025Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).
This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.
Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
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)
Started with Extreme FWI: 52 % of the area in Cameroon 60 days without rain: 50 % of the area in Cameroon
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Feb | 35.0 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 5 Feb | 33.7 °C | 18 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 6 Feb | 35.7 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 7 Feb | 33.7 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 8 Feb | 33.8 °C | 22 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 9 Feb | 34.5 °C | 16 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 10 Feb | 35.3 °C | 19 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 11 Feb | 34.7 °C | 18 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 12 Feb | 35.2 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 60 |
| 13 Feb | 34.6 °C | 14 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 14 Feb | 33.3 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 15 Feb | 34.2 °C | 17 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 16 Feb | 34.7 °C | 13 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 17 Feb | 35.6 °C | 14 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 18 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 15 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 19 Feb after | 31.1 °C | 36 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 20 Feb after | 33.6 °C | 18 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 21 Feb after | 34.6 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Feb after | 34.0 °C | 23 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 23 Feb after | 33.5 °C | 24 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 24 Feb after | 34.6 °C | 24 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Feb after | 32.6 °C | 33 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Feb after | 30.1 °C | 43 % | 29 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Feb after | 34.6 °C | 16 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 57.0, a minimum humidity of 17% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 63.
FWI at the start
57.0
Minimum humidity
17 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Meiganga fire, 4 February 2025
1,259 ha
14 days
FWI 57.0
Min. humidity 17 %
Bétaré-Oya fire, February 2023
5,624 ha
26 days
FWI 55.8
Min. humidity 17 %
121 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 3.0 mm on 10 Mar.
Tcholliré fire, January 2016
1,827 ha
8 days
FWI 56.3
Min. humidity 17 %
174 km away, in 2016
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Bétaré-Oya fire, February 2021
3,624 ha
31 days
FWI 54.7
Min. humidity 17 %
107 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.1 mm on 10 Mar.
Meiganga fire, February 2022
1,654 ha
7 days
FWI 59.0
Min. humidity 15 %
2 km away, in 2022
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.9 mm on 6 Mar.
Dir fire, February 2021
1,669 ha
13 days
FWI 54.4
Min. humidity 17 %
97 km away, in 2021
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 8 days
- median duration
- 1,421 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 5.8 mm
- rain at the end (median; 10 of 63 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (1,259 ha against a median of 1,421 ha) and lasted 14 days, against 8 days.
In 53 of 63, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.8 mm.
This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it
How it ended
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
33km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 17 Feb, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 10 of 63, with a median of 5.8 mm.
Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
How a twin is chosen
- Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
- Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
- Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
- Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
- They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 28 Jan 2025
After · 24 Feb 2025
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 9 February 2025 the air beside the fire reached 62 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 46: 3.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
PM2.5 peak62 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10110 µg/m³
Optical depth0.78
WHO 15
5 Feb7 Feb9 Feb11 Feb13 Feb
Good
Fair
Moderate
Poor
Very poor
Extremely poor
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 · 56Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,750 haMeiganga1 February 2023 · 29 days · 1 km away
- 2,490 haMeiganga4 March 2024 · 2 days · 1 km away
- 2,936 haMeiganga16 February 2021 · 21 days · 3 km away
- 3,108 haMeiganga3 March 2024 · 5 days · 6 km away
- 1,915 haMeigangaFebruary 2017 · 20 days · 7 km away
- 3,654 haMeiganga9 February 2025 · 27 days · 9 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Meiganga fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 4 February 2025 to 17 February 2025 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 February 2025 to 10 February 2025.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,259 hectares (12.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Meiganga (1,209 ha, 0.2 %); Garoua-Boulaï (57 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.7 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 62, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cameroon (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
- How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
- Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 63. Their median duration was 8 days and their median area 1,421 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 53 of 63, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 5.8 mm.
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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 10 February 2025 → 17 February 2025.
- Start date: 7 February 2025 → 4 February 2025.
RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 7 February 2025 to 10 February 2025. 56 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
- Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.