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Tesker fire, November 2020 Tesker

Out · last detection 14 Nov 2020, 12:36 UTC

The fire started on 14 November 2020 in Tesker, Niger, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,283 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 17th largest in Zinder since 2016 (of 103 with a page). The largest in Niger in 2020, of 26.

Burnt area
3,283ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
1day
14 Nov 2020 – 14 Nov 2020
Municipalities hit
1
communes
Started on
14 Nov
2020
Heat detections
98
in a single hotspot: 69 MW
Danger at start
68
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.3GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Nov14 Nov

How it evolved, day by day

14

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

The weather it burned in

33°high
49km/h · peak gust
18%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. Tesker where it started
    3,284 ha reached on 14 Nov
    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)
14 Nov 32.6 °C 18 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
15 Nov after 31.8 °C 20 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
16 Nov after 31.1 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
17 Nov after 29.8 °C 20 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
18 Nov after 29.5 °C 19 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
19 Nov after 29.8 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
20 Nov after 29.6 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
21 Nov after 29.7 °C 18 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
22 Nov after 31.9 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
23 Nov after 33.9 °C 14 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Nov after 34.8 °C 13 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Nov 2020
After · 21 Nov 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 · 98Every 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 Niger ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tesker fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 November 2020 and 14 November 2020: 1 day 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 3,283 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tesker (3,284 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.6 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Niger (OCHA COD-AB). 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 OCHA COD-AB (IGNN) (Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY-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.