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Tabati fire, 10 January 2020 Tabati, Yoko

Out · last detection 18 Jan 2020, 13:17 UTC

The fire started on 10 January 2020 in Tabati, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,335 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 11th largest in Adamaoua since 2016 (of 233 with a page). Number 14 in Cameroon in 2020, of 268.

Burnt area
3,335ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
10 Jan 2020 – 18 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
10 Jan
2020
Heat detections
80
in a single hotspot: 100 MW
Danger at start
34
High · FWI index
Energy released
817MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

18 Jan 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 10 Jan18 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

10121314161718

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
35km/h · peak gust
15%lowest humidity

It had gone 58 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

94% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,549 ha in 2016, 1,736 ha in 2017, 104 ha in 2018, 2,031 ha in 2019. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,150 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Tabati where it started
    3,171 ha reached on 9 Jan
    0.3 %
  2. Yoko
    183 ha reached on 17 Jan
    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)
10 Jan 32.0 °C 22 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
11 Jan 32.0 °C 23 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Jan 33.1 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
13 Jan 33.6 °C 17 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Jan 34.1 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
15 Jan 34.3 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jan 32.9 °C 15 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Jan 33.1 °C 18 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Jan 31.8 °C 20 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Jan after 31.4 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Jan after 32.4 °C 24 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Jan after 34.0 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
22 Jan after 34.0 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Jan after 33.1 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
24 Jan after 32.1 °C 10 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
25 Jan after 31.5 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
26 Jan after 32.5 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
27 Jan after 32.6 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Jan after 33.4 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 3 Jan 2020
After · 25 Jan 2020

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 · 80Every 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 Tabati fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 10 January 2020 and 18 January 2020: 9 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 3,335 hectares (33.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tabati (3,171 ha, 0.3 %); Yoko (183 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.3 °C, humidity dropped to 15 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 46, 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.