Tesker fire, 24 October 2021 Tesker, Alakoss, Kellé
The fire started on 24 October 2021 in Tesker, Niger, and satellites saw it burning for 1 day. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,138 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 19th largest in Zinder since 2016 (of 103 with a page). Number 8 in Niger in 2021, of 48.
The power measured by the satellite is low (28.6 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Compare with…
- Burnt area
- 3,138ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 1day
- 24 Oct 2021 – 24 Oct 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- communes
- Started on
- 24 Oct
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 80
- in a single hotspot: 29 MW
- Danger at start
- 72
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 897MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
24 Oct 2021 · 897 MW · 80
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 6 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?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Tesker where it started1,860 ha reached on 24 Oct0.0 %
-
1,255 ha reached on 24 Oct0.4 %
-
33 ha0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Oct | 38.6 °C | 8 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 25 Oct after | 39.0 °C | 7 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 26 Oct after | 39.5 °C | 9 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 27 Oct after | 38.7 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 28 Oct after | 38.4 °C | 7 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 29 Oct after | 37.7 °C | 5 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 82 |
| 30 Oct after | 37.6 °C | 8 % | 47 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 77 |
| 31 Oct after | 37.1 °C | 9 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 83 |
| 1 Nov after | 36.5 °C | 13 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 2 Nov after | 36.6 °C | 13 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 3 Nov after | 37.5 °C | 11 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 80Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 1,680 haTesker10 April 2026 · 2 days · 11 km away
- 5,691 haAlakossDecember 2025 · 1 day · 19 km away
- 3,425 haAlakoss1 October 2025 · 1 day · 23 km away
- 2,668 haTesker1 December 2025 · 2 days · 29 km away
- 6,837 haAlakoss28 October 2025 · 3 days · 31 km away
- 2,467 haTesker10 November 2025 · 1 day · 32 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Tesker fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 24 October 2021 and 24 October 2021: 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 3,138 hectares (31.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Tesker (1,860 ha, 0.0 %); Alakoss (1,255 ha, 0.4 %); Kellé (33 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.6 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 72, class Very 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.
Report an error
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates from the perimeter: the VIIRS detections inside it did not change them. 80 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.
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.