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GW · Guinea-Bissau · →

Pitche fire, 31 January 2022 Pitche

Out · last detection 13 Feb 2022, 02:20 UTC

The fire started on 31 January 2022 in Pitche, Guinea-Bissau, and satellites saw it burning for 14 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,506 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 4th largest in Gabú since 2016 (of 162 with a page). The largest in Guinea-Bissau in 2022, of 36.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.9 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
3,506ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
14days
31 Jan 2022 – 13 Feb 2022
Municipalities hit
1
sectors
Started on
31 Jan
2022
Heat detections
119
in a single hotspot: 30 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
769MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Feb 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 31 Jan13 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

3112478910111213

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
47km/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

23% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 725 ha in 2019, 105 ha in 2021.

What happened to each town

  1. Pitche where it started
    3,528 ha reached on 31 Jan
    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 Jan 38.8 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Feb 39.4 °C 11 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
2 Feb 37.9 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
3 Feb 36.6 °C 13 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
4 Feb 38.3 °C 13 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Feb 39.0 °C 13 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
6 Feb 38.5 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Feb 39.3 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
8 Feb 39.0 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
9 Feb 38.9 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
10 Feb 39.0 °C 12 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
11 Feb 38.0 °C 10 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
12 Feb 36.5 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
13 Feb 36.5 °C 10 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
14 Feb after 37.4 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
15 Feb after 37.7 °C 13 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
16 Feb after 38.0 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
17 Feb after 38.7 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
18 Feb after 37.1 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
19 Feb after 38.2 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
20 Feb after 40.5 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
21 Feb after 39.8 °C 12 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
22 Feb after 39.2 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
23 Feb after 39.3 °C 19 % 31 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 · 24 Jan 2022
After · 20 Feb 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 · 119Every 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 Guinea-Bissau ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Pitche fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 31 January 2022 to 13 February 2022 (14 days). The perimeter dates it from 7 February 2022 to 12 February 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,506 hectares (35.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Pitche (3,528 ha, 1.8 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 67, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea-Bissau (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 (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.