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BJ · Benin · –

Tanguiéta fire, 22 November 2022 Tanguiéta, Matéri

Out · last detection 28 Dec 2022, 14:05 UTC

The fire started on 22 November 2022 in Tanguiéta, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 36 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 42,755 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Atakora since 2016 (of 523 with a page). Number 2 in Benin in 2022, of 96.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Tanguiéta · 2020Tanguiéta · 2021Tanguiéta · 2018Tanguiéta · 2019

Burnt area
42,755ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
36days
22 Nov 2022 – 27 Dec 2022
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
22 Nov
2022
Heat detections
1,508
in a single hotspot: 192 MW
Danger at start
42
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
545MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Nov27 Dec
28 Dec 2022

How it evolved, day by day

22 Nov 2022 · 1,824 MW · 82 23 Nov 2022 · 4,712 MW · 207 24 Nov 2022 · 1,622 MW · 90 25 Nov 2022 · 587 MW · 50 26 Nov 2022 · 166 MW · 20 27 Nov 2022 · 1 MW · 1 28 Nov 2022 · 606 MW · 96 29 Nov 2022 · 211 MW · 29 30 Nov 2022 · 194 MW · 34 1 Dec 2022 · 178 MW · 29 2 Dec 2022 · 389 MW · 38 3 Dec 2022 · 44 MW · 11 4 Dec 2022 · 23 MW · 7 5 Dec 2022 · 52 MW · 11 6 Dec 2022 · 195 MW · 42 7 Dec 2022 · 868 MW · 47 8 Dec 2022 · 316 MW · 64 9 Dec 2022 · 667 MW · 74 10 Dec 2022 · 370 MW · 60 11 Dec 2022 · 346 MW · 46 12 Dec 2022 · 367 MW · 42 13 Dec 2022 · 159 MW · 16 14 Dec 2022 · 1,112 MW · 63 15 Dec 2022 · 491 MW · 46 16 Dec 2022 · 283 MW · 40 17 Dec 2022 · 3 MW · 3 18 Dec 2022 · 258 MW · 52 19 Dec 2022 · 240 MW · 40 20 Dec 2022 · 3 MW · 2 22 Dec 2022 · 698 MW · 15 23 Dec 2022 · 48 MW · 8 24 Dec 2022 · 11 MW · 1 25 Dec 2022 · 234 MW · 26 26 Dec 2022 · 79 MW · 19 27 Dec 2022 · 35 MW · 11 28 Dec 2022 · 2,231 MW · 86
23 Nov 30 Nov 8 Dec 16 Dec 25 Dec

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
40km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 39 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

88% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,284 ha in 2016, 7,339 ha in 2017, 8,668 ha in 2018, 17,570 ha in 2019, 24,577 ha in 2020, 19,049 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 37,691 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 27% of the area of London (428 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Tanguiéta where it started
    42,993 ha reached on 22 Nov
    7.7 %
  2. Matéri
    28 ha reached on 12 Dec
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2020
Built-up area0.55 ha
Residents≈ 50

Inside the perimeter there were about 0.55 hectares of built-up land and about 50 residents (GHSL 2020, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

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)
22 Nov 36.5 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
23 Nov 36.5 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
24 Nov 36.8 °C 12 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Nov 36.4 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
26 Nov 36.5 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
27 Nov 36.2 °C 14 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Nov 36.2 °C 15 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
29 Nov 36.1 °C 14 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
30 Nov 35.6 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Dec 36.5 °C 17 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Dec 37.1 °C 18 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Dec 36.7 °C 22 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
4 Dec 38.4 °C 16 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
5 Dec 37.6 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Dec 36.8 °C 14 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
7 Dec 36.1 °C 16 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
8 Dec 36.2 °C 14 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
9 Dec 35.7 °C 14 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
10 Dec 35.4 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Dec 34.8 °C 11 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
12 Dec 35.9 °C 13 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
13 Dec 36.5 °C 12 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
14 Dec 36.4 °C 10 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
15 Dec 36.1 °C 10 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
16 Dec 36.1 °C 12 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
17 Dec 34.4 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Dec 35.1 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
19 Dec 34.8 °C 13 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
20 Dec 33.7 °C 16 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
21 Dec 32.9 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
22 Dec 31.8 °C 18 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
23 Dec 31.1 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
24 Dec 30.8 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
25 Dec 31.2 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
26 Dec 33.1 °C 17 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
27 Dec 33.7 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
28 Dec after 33.9 °C 16 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
29 Dec after 33.9 °C 16 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
30 Dec after 33.5 °C 13 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Nov 2022
After · 3 Jan 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 16 December 2022 the air beside the fire reached 143 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 81: 5.4 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak143 µg/m³
Days over the guideline39 days
PM10210 µg/m³
Optical depth0.95
20 Nov29 Nov8 Dec17 Dec26 Dec
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 1,508Every 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 Benin

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tanguiéta fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 November 2022 to 27 December 2022 (36 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 November 2022 to 20 December 2022.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 42,755 hectares (427.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tanguiéta (42,993 ha, 7.7 %); Matéri (28 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 61, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Benin (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

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

No changes since 24 October 2026.

RSS Changes to this page

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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How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery; 7 polygons grouped in this page.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 22 November 2022 to 20 December 2022. 1,508 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

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 ADM2 (Public Domain). 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.