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BF · Burkina Faso · →

Pama fire, 4 November 2016 Pama

Out · last detection 10 Nov 2016, 13:46 UTC

The fire started on 4 November 2016 in Pama, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,427 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 37th largest in Goulmou since 2016 (of 529 with a page). Number 6 in Burkina Faso in 2016, of 144.

Burnt area
4,427ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
4 Nov 2016 – 10 Nov 2016
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
4 Nov
2016
Heat detections
121
in a single hotspot: 100 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
2.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Nov 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 4 Nov10 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

45678910

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
35km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone one day without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Pama where it started
    4,452 ha reached on 1 Nov
    0.9 %

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 Nov 37.1 °C 22 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
5 Nov 36.4 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
6 Nov 36.9 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
7 Nov 37.5 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
8 Nov 37.4 °C 11 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
9 Nov 38.4 °C 11 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Nov 37.9 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
11 Nov after 37.8 °C 13 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Nov after 36.8 °C 22 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Nov after 38.5 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Nov after 38.2 °C 13 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Nov after 38.0 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
16 Nov after 38.5 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Nov after 39.0 °C 15 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
18 Nov after 38.8 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Nov after 38.6 °C 26 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
20 Nov after 39.1 °C 17 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Oct 2016
After · 17 Nov 2016

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 · 121Every 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 Pama fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 November 2016 and 10 November 2016: 7 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 4,427 hectares (44.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pama (4,452 ha, 0.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
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.