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Samana fire, 23 January 2016 Samana

Out · last detection 31 Jan 2016, 14:12 UTC

The fire started on 23 January 2016 in Samana, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,016 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 69th largest in Nzérékoré since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 61 in Guinea in 2016, of 172.

The power measured by the satellite is low (26.6 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
3,016ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
23 Jan 2016 – 30 Jan 2016
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
23 Jan
2016
Heat detections
74
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
38
High · FWI index
Energy released
471MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

31 Jan 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 23 Jan30 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

232425262728293031

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
41km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 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. Samana where it started
    3,036 ha reached on 23 Jan
    3.3 %

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)
23 Jan 32.4 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Jan 33.2 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Jan 32.1 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Jan 32.1 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
27 Jan 31.4 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Jan 31.2 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Jan 30.1 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
30 Jan 30.8 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
31 Jan after 31.3 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
1 Feb after 32.1 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Feb after 30.3 °C 18 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
3 Feb after 32.2 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
4 Feb after 33.3 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
5 Feb after 32.9 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
6 Feb after 34.1 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
7 Feb after 34.2 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
8 Feb after 33.0 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
9 Feb after 33.3 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 16 Jan 2016
After · 6 Feb 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 · 74Every 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 ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Samana fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 23 January 2016 and 30 January 2016: 8 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 3,016 hectares (30.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Samana (3,036 ha, 3.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.2 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea (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 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 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.