Pô fire, November 2022 Pô
The fire started on 14 November 2022 in Pô, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,372 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 4th largest in Nazinon since 2016 (of 60 with a page). Number 12 in Burkina Faso in 2022, of 109.
- Burnt area
- 3,372ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 14 Nov 2022 – 18 Nov 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 14 Nov
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 75
- in a single hotspot: 70 MW
- Danger at start
- 32
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.1GW
- 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 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
43% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 818 ha in 2017, 579 ha in 2020, 94 ha in 2021.
- 818 ha Pô fire, November 2017 5,225 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 579 ha Pô fire, December 2020 1,316 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 94 ha Pô fire, November 2021 1,573 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Pô where it started3,392 ha reached on 14 Nov2.1 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Nov | 35.9 °C | 28 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 15 Nov | 35.6 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 16 Nov | 34.4 °C | 17 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 17 Nov | 34.5 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 18 Nov | 34.4 °C | 20 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 19 Nov after | 34.7 °C | 27 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 20 Nov after | 35.7 °C | 23 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 21 Nov after | 35.4 °C | 15 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 22 Nov after | 35.3 °C | 17 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Nov after | 35.2 °C | 17 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 24 Nov after | 35.8 °C | 15 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 25 Nov after | 35.5 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 26 Nov after | 36.0 °C | 16 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 27 Nov after | 35.4 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 28 Nov after | 34.7 °C | 20 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
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 · 75Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,225 haPôNovember 2017 · 7 days · 4 km away
- 28,109 haPôNovember 2025 · 24 days · 7 km away
- 3,769 haGuiaro25 November 2021 · 2 days · 10 km away
- 5,051 haSissala East11 December 2016 · 7 days · 19 km away
- 3,783 haKasena Nankana West2 December 2025 · 10 days · 24 km away
- 6,564 haSissala East30 December 2025 · 6 days · 36 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Pô fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 November 2022 and 18 November 2022: 5 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 3,372 hectares (33.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Pô (3,392 ha, 2.1 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 17 % and gusts hit 32 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, 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.
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 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.