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Tchaourou fire, 11 January 2016 Tchaourou

Out · last detection 7 Feb 2016, 00:54 UTC

The fire started on 11 January 2016 in Tchaourou, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 28 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,472 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 2th largest in Borgou since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 5 in Benin in 2016, of 129.

The power measured by the satellite is low (20.8 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
4,472ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
28days
11 Jan 2016 – 7 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
11 Jan
2016
Heat detections
204
in a single hotspot: 21 MW
Danger at start
45
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
905MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

7 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Jan7 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

121317182021222324252627282930311357

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
36km/h · peak gust
11%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Tchaourou where it started
    4,504 ha reached on 12 Jan
    0.7 %

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)
11 Jan 36.3 °C 19 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
12 Jan 35.6 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
13 Jan 35.7 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
14 Jan 32.8 °C 21 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Jan 34.6 °C 21 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
16 Jan 35.2 °C 21 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Jan 34.0 °C 21 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Jan 35.6 °C 18 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
19 Jan 35.2 °C 27 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
20 Jan 35.0 °C 18 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
21 Jan 34.6 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Jan 34.8 °C 11 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
23 Jan 33.6 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
24 Jan 31.3 °C 15 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
25 Jan 31.7 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
26 Jan 30.6 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Jan 31.4 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
28 Jan 31.0 °C 19 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Jan 31.5 °C 19 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Jan 32.2 °C 18 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
31 Jan 32.7 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
1 Feb 33.0 °C 15 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
2 Feb 34.2 °C 13 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
3 Feb 34.1 °C 16 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
4 Feb 34.1 °C 16 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
5 Feb 35.3 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Feb 35.4 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
7 Feb 34.5 °C 15 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
8 Feb after 34.3 °C 14 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
9 Feb after 34.2 °C 15 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
10 Feb after 34.4 °C 13 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
11 Feb after 34.9 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
12 Feb after 34.7 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
13 Feb after 35.1 °C 13 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
14 Feb after 35.4 °C 12 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
15 Feb after 36.6 °C 23 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Feb after 35.9 °C 32 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
17 Feb after 38.7 °C 15 % 28 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 · 4 Jan 2016
After · 14 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 · 204Every 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 Tchaourou fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 11 January 2016 to 7 February 2016 (28 days). The perimeter dates it from 18 January 2016 to 31 January 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,472 hectares (44.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tchaourou (4,504 ha, 0.7 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 11 % and gusts hit 36 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Very high.
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

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 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.