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CI · Côte d’Ivoire · –

Tendéné-Bambarasso fire, December 2019 Tendéné-Bambarasso

Out · last detection 25 Dec 2019, 14:09 UTC

The fire started on 15 December 2019 in Tendéné-Bambarasso, Côte d’Ivoire, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,225 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 49th largest in Valle Du Bandama since 2016 (of 91 with a page). Number 84 in Côte d’Ivoire in 2019, of 142.

The power measured by the satellite is low (13.8 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
1,225ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
15 Dec 2019 – 25 Dec 2019
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
15 Dec
2019
Heat detections
34
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Average daily power
24MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 15 Dec25 Dec
25 Dec 2019

How it evolved, day by day

15 Dec 2019 · 13 MW · 1 16 Dec 2019 · 14 MW · 1 17 Dec 2019 · 12 MW · 2 18 Dec 2019 · 3 MW · 1 19 Dec 2019 · 44 MW · 5 20 Dec 2019 · 69 MW · 10 21 Dec 2019 · 72 MW · 11 22 Dec 2019 · 5 MW · 1 23 Dec 2019 · 7 MW · 1 25 Dec 2019 · 2 MW · 1
15 Dec 17 Dec 19 Dec 21 Dec 23 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

36°high
33km/h · peak gust
14%lowest humidity

It had gone 30 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.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.8% of the area of London (12 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. Tendéné-Bambarasso where it started
    1,233 ha reached on 15 Dec
    1.0 %

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 area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (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)
15 Dec 35.5 °C 28 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
16 Dec 35.1 °C 32 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
17 Dec 35.4 °C 33 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
18 Dec 34.7 °C 35 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
19 Dec 35.3 °C 23 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
20 Dec 35.7 °C 19 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
21 Dec 35.1 °C 34 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
22 Dec 35.4 °C 26 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Dec 36.3 °C 14 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
24 Dec 35.6 °C 16 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
25 Dec 34.9 °C 23 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Dec after 34.9 °C 21 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
27 Dec after 34.7 °C 24 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
28 Dec after 34.5 °C 23 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
29 Dec after 35.4 °C 20 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
30 Dec after 35.0 °C 16 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Dec after 34.6 °C 15 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Jan after 33.6 °C 16 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
2 Jan after 32.6 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
3 Jan after 30.3 °C 19 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
4 Jan after 30.1 °C 19 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 29.6, a minimum humidity of 28% and 30 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 54.

FWI at the start 29.6
Minimum humidity 28 %
Days without rain 30
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Parc national de la Comoé fire, December 2018
3,785 ha 7 days FWI 29.5 Min. humidity 29 % 84 km away, in 2018

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

8 days
median duration
1,689 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
2.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 1 of 54 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,225 ha against a median of 1,689 ha) and lasted 11 days, against 8 days.

In 53 of 54, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
33km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 25 Dec, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 1 of 54, with a median of 2.0 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 8 Dec 2019
After · 1 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 · 34Every 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 Côte d’Ivoire

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tendéné-Bambarasso fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 15 December 2019 to 25 December 2019 (11 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 December 2019 to 23 December 2019.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,225 hectares (12.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tendéné-Bambarasso (1,233 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 14 % and gusts hit 33 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 43, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Côte d’Ivoire (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 54. Their median duration was 8 days and their median area 1,689 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 53 of 54, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 2.0 mm.

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.

Emergency number: 180 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

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

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.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 180.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 December 2019 to 23 December 2019. 34 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 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.