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Poli fire, 18 December 2018 Poli, Mbé, Tcholliré

Out · last detection 23 Dec 2018, 12:10 UTC

The fire started on 18 December 2018 in Poli, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,812 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 163th largest in North since 2016 (of 1648 with a page). Number 5 in Cameroon in 2018, of 104.

Burnt area
2,812ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
18 Dec 2018 – 23 Dec 2018
Municipalities hit
3
communes
Started on
18 Dec
2018
Heat detections
83
in a single hotspot: 128 MW
Danger at start
39
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Dec 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 18 Dec23 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

1819202223

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
28km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 40 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

65% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,485 ha in 2016, 782 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,814 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Poli where it started
    2,821 ha reached on 18 Dec
    0.3 %
  2. Mbé
    7 ha
    0.0 %
  3. Tcholliré
    1 ha
    0.0 %

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)
18 Dec 31.8 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
19 Dec 31.7 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Dec 32.1 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
21 Dec 31.7 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
22 Dec 32.3 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
23 Dec 31.9 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
24 Dec after 29.8 °C 21 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
25 Dec after 31.0 °C 20 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Dec after 31.7 °C 22 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Dec after 32.2 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Dec after 32.3 °C 22 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
29 Dec after 31.8 °C 21 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
30 Dec after 31.6 °C 21 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
31 Dec after 33.1 °C 18 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
1 Jan after 32.3 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
2 Jan after 31.9 °C 17 % 26 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 · 11 Dec 2018
After · 30 Dec 2018

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 · 83Every 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 18 December 2018 and 23 December 2018: 6 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 2,812 hectares (28.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Poli (2,821 ha, 0.3 %); Mbé (7 ha, 0.0 %); Tcholliré (1 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.3 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 28 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.