How long did the Tchaourou fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 20 January 2017 to 17 February 2017 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 January 2017 to 10 February 2017.

How much area did it burn?

The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,150 hectares (51.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tchaourou (3,776 ha, 0.6 %); Djougou (1,198 ha, 0.3 %); N'dali (212 ha, 0.1 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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.

BJ · Benin · 2017-01-20 → 2017-02-17

Tchaourou fire, 20 January 2017 Tchaourou, Djougou, N'dali

Out · last detection 17 Feb 2017, 12:48 UTC

The fire started on 20 January 2017 in Tchaourou, Benin, and satellites saw it burning for 29 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,150 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Borgou since 2016 (of 29 with a page). Number 9 in Benin in 2017, of 152.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.4 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: 5,150ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 29days; 20 Jan 2017 – 17 Feb 2017
Municipalities hit: 3; communes
Started on: 20 Jan; 2017
Heat detections: 317; in a single hotspot: 25 MW
Danger at start: 38; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.6GW; sum of detected power

Play back 17 Feb 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Jan17 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

202324252627282930311345678910111214151617

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

38km/h · peak gust

8%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

Tchaourou where it started

3,776 ha reached on 20 Jan

0.6 %
Djougou

1,198 ha reached on 24 Jan

0.3 %
N'dali

212 ha reached on 26 Jan

0.1 %

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)
20 Jan	34.9 °C	24 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
21 Jan	34.7 °C	31 %	16 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
22 Jan	35.4 °C	24 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
23 Jan	34.4 °C	20 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 39
24 Jan	33.4 °C	14 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
25 Jan	33.6 °C	10 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 47
26 Jan	33.6 °C	8 %	21 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
27 Jan	34.5 °C	15 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
28 Jan	34.7 °C	15 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
29 Jan	35.1 °C	16 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 50
30 Jan	35.2 °C	25 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
31 Jan	34.2 °C	30 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
1 Feb	34.4 °C	36 %	35 km/h	0.2 mm	High 36
2 Feb	35.4 °C	27 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
3 Feb	34.7 °C	19 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 41
4 Feb	34.6 °C	18 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
5 Feb	34.8 °C	10 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
6 Feb	34.5 °C	9 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
7 Feb	34.0 °C	9 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
8 Feb	34.1 °C	12 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 50
9 Feb	34.7 °C	16 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 52
10 Feb	34.7 °C	15 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
11 Feb	35.5 °C	17 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 51
12 Feb	34.8 °C	27 %	26 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
13 Feb	35.2 °C	8 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
14 Feb	35.6 °C	9 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
15 Feb	34.6 °C	9 %	31 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 53
16 Feb	34.3 °C	8 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
17 Feb	33.2 °C	10 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
18 Feb after	32.8 °C	11 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 55
19 Feb after	33.1 °C	12 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Extreme 54
20 Feb after	34.6 °C	14 %	23 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
21 Feb after	34.9 °C	18 %	25 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
22 Feb after	35.4 °C	17 %	28 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 49
23 Feb after	35.3 °C	25 %	22 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
24 Feb after	36.8 °C	26 %	24 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
25 Feb after	36.8 °C	27 %	20 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
26 Feb after	35.7 °C	24 %	19 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
27 Feb after	36.6 °C	24 %	21 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 · 13 Jan 2017

After · 24 Feb 2017

Before After

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 · 317Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

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 20 January 2017 to 17 February 2017 (29 days). The perimeter dates it from 23 January 2017 to 10 February 2017.
How much area did it burn?: The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 5,150 hectares (51.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tchaourou (3,776 ha, 0.6 %); Djougou (1,198 ha, 0.3 %); N'dali (212 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 35.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 54, 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

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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.

Where it burned