Oti fire, 17 January 2021 Oti
The fire started on 17 January 2021 in Oti, Togo, and satellites saw it burning for 18 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,984 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 2th largest in Savanes since 2016 (of 78 with a page). The largest in Togo in 2021, of 30.
- Burnt area
- 4,984ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 18days
- 17 Jan 2021 – 3 Feb 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- prefectures
- Started on
- 17 Jan
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 144
- in a single hotspot: 97 MW
- Danger at start
- 45
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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 more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
51% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,589 ha in 2016, 1,864 ha in 2018, 951 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,552 ha that had burned before.
- 1,864 ha Oti fire, January 2018 2,676 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 951 ha Oti fire, February 2020 1,244 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 893 ha Oti fire, January 2016 1,157 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 696 ha Oti fire, December 2016 1,073 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Oti where it started5,012 ha reached on 18 Jan1.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Jan | 36.0 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 18 Jan | 36.5 °C | 14 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 19 Jan | 35.8 °C | 18 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 20 Jan | 34.5 °C | 16 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 21 Jan | 34.9 °C | 18 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 22 Jan | 33.4 °C | 17 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 23 Jan | 33.9 °C | 18 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 24 Jan | 35.0 °C | 16 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 25 Jan | 36.6 °C | 13 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 26 Jan | 36.4 °C | 15 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 27 Jan | 37.1 °C | 15 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 28 Jan | 37.0 °C | 16 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 29 Jan | 36.8 °C | 13 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 30 Jan | 35.5 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 31 Jan | 34.6 °C | 14 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 1 Feb | 35.8 °C | 12 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 2 Feb | 36.1 °C | 12 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 3 Feb | 38.0 °C | 15 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 47 |
| 4 Feb after | 38.2 °C | 11 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 5 Feb after | 37.7 °C | 18 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 6 Feb after | 37.9 °C | 18 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Feb after | 37.7 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 8 Feb after | 37.8 °C | 13 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 9 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 10 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 10 Feb after | 38.7 °C | 11 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 51 |
| 11 Feb after | 39.4 °C | 17 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 12 Feb after | 38.3 °C | 28 % | 25 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 13 Feb after | 39.4 °C | 19 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
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.
Detections table · 144Every 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 Oti fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 17 January 2021 to 3 February 2021 (18 days). The perimeter dates it from 24 January 2021 to 2 February 2021.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,984 hectares (49.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Oti (5,012 ha, 1.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.0 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 31 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Togo (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.
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 geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0). 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.