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Sengbédou fire, January 2016 Sengbédou, Kouankan, Sérédou

Out · last detection 12 Feb 2016, 13:46 UTC

The fire started on 28 January 2016 in Sengbédou, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 15 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,742 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Nzérékoré since 2016 (of 241 with a page). Number 14 in Guinea in 2016, of 172.

Burnt area
6,742ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
15days
28 Jan 2016 – 11 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
3
sub-prefectures
Started on
28 Jan
2016
Heat detections
532
in a single hotspot: 64 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
4.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

12 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 28 Jan11 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

28293031123456789101112

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

The weather it burned in

34°high
51km/h · peak gust
13%lowest humidity

It had gone 9 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. Sengbédou where it started
    4,507 ha reached on 23 Jan
    7.5 %
  2. Kouankan
    2,084 ha reached on 23 Jan
    1.6 %
  3. Sérédou
    194 ha reached on 24 Jan
    0.3 %

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)
28 Jan 30.7 °C 16 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Jan 29.8 °C 15 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Jan 31.0 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
31 Jan 30.8 °C 20 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
1 Feb 32.2 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
2 Feb 30.7 °C 16 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
3 Feb 31.7 °C 16 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Feb 32.0 °C 18 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
5 Feb 32.3 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
6 Feb 33.6 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
7 Feb 33.5 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Feb 31.9 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
9 Feb 32.3 °C 15 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
10 Feb 32.6 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
11 Feb 32.5 °C 13 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
12 Feb after 33.3 °C 10 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Feb after 33.4 °C 14 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
14 Feb after 32.4 °C 25 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Feb after 33.3 °C 18 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
16 Feb after 31.7 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Feb after 34.3 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Feb after 33.6 °C 19 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
19 Feb after 33.5 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Feb after 34.4 °C 22 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Feb after 35.3 °C 10 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 21 Jan 2016
After · 18 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 · 532Every 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 Sengbédou fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 28 January 2016 and 11 February 2016: 15 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 6,742 hectares (67.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Sengbédou (4,507 ha, 7.5 %); Kouankan (2,084 ha, 1.6 %); Sérédou (194 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 33.6 °C, humidity dropped to 13 % and gusts hit 51 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 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.