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Poli fire, 28 November 2016 Poli

Out · last detection 8 Dec 2016, 13:19 UTC

The fire started on 28 November 2016 in Poli, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,981 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 64th largest in North since 2016 (of 1648 with a page). Number 12 in Cameroon in 2016, of 304.

Burnt area
3,981ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
10days
28 Nov 2016 – 7 Dec 2016
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
28 Nov
2016
Heat detections
140
in a single hotspot: 90 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Dec 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Nov7 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

2829301235678

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
32km/h · peak gust
16%lowest humidity

It had gone 28 days 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. Poli where it started
    4,004 ha reached on 28 Nov
    0.4 %

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)
28 Nov 36.1 °C 20 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
29 Nov 36.3 °C 22 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
30 Nov 36.5 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Dec 36.2 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
2 Dec 35.1 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Dec 34.0 °C 21 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Dec 33.9 °C 22 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
5 Dec 32.6 °C 22 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
6 Dec 35.3 °C 17 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
7 Dec 36.3 °C 18 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Dec after 36.0 °C 20 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Dec after 36.3 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
10 Dec after 35.2 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
11 Dec after 35.1 °C 19 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
12 Dec after 35.4 °C 17 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Dec after 34.6 °C 16 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Dec after 34.6 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
15 Dec after 34.4 °C 17 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Dec after 33.6 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Dec after 33.4 °C 21 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Nov 2016
After · 14 Dec 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 · 140Every 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 Cameroon ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Poli fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 November 2016 and 7 December 2016: 10 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 3,981 hectares (39.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Poli (4,004 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 16 % 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 Cameroon (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 ADM3 (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.