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Ouindigui fire, 31 December 2023 Ouindigui, Titao

Out · last detection 10 Jan 2024, 01:29 UTC

The fire started on 31 December 2023 in Ouindigui, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 9,624 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 2th largest in Yaadga since 2016 (of 74 with a page). The largest in Burkina Faso in 2023, of 261.

Burnt area
9,624ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
31 Dec 2023 – 10 Jan 2024
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
31 Dec
2023
Heat detections
288
in a single hotspot: 44 MW
Danger at start
53
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Jan 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Dec10 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

3112345678910

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
34km/h · peak gust
8%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 6 ha in 2023.

What happened to each town

  1. Ouindigui where it started
    6,779 ha reached on 29 Dec
    11 %
  2. Titao
    2,903 ha reached on 31 Dec
    1.8 %

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)
31 Dec 33.6 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
1 Jan 34.6 °C 8 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
2 Jan 34.6 °C 8 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
3 Jan 34.3 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
4 Jan 34.5 °C 10 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
5 Jan 34.5 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Jan 33.9 °C 11 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
7 Jan 34.7 °C 11 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
8 Jan 35.1 °C 11 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
9 Jan 35.4 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
10 Jan 36.1 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
11 Jan after 35.7 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
12 Jan after 35.4 °C 8 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
13 Jan after 33.6 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
14 Jan after 33.9 °C 8 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
15 Jan after 33.8 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
16 Jan after 33.0 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
17 Jan after 32.1 °C 9 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Jan after 33.3 °C 9 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
19 Jan after 34.8 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
20 Jan after 35.3 °C 10 % 32 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 · 24 Dec 2023
After · 17 Jan 2024

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 · 288Every 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 Burkina Faso ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Ouindigui fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 December 2023 and 10 January 2024: 11 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 9,624 hectares (96.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Ouindigui (6,779 ha, 11 %); Titao (2,903 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 60, 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.

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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 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.