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Thionthian fire, 14 April 2018 Thionthian, Baguinet

Out · last detection 20 Apr 2018, 14:23 UTC

The fire started on 14 April 2018 in Thionthian, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,598 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 78th largest in Kindia since 2016 (of 242 with a page). Number 29 in Guinea in 2018, of 107.

Burnt area
3,598ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
14 Apr 2018 – 19 Apr 2018
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
14 Apr
2018
Heat detections
132
in a single hotspot: 569 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
8.5GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Apr 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Apr19 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

1417181920

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
38km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 530 ha in 2016, 2,300 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Thionthian where it started
    3,614 ha reached on 14 Apr
    5.7 %
  2. Baguinet
    6 ha
    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 Apr 34.8 °C 40 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
15 Apr 34.7 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
16 Apr 36.1 °C 25 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
17 Apr 37.6 °C 26 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
18 Apr 36.8 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
19 Apr 34.8 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
20 Apr after 36.0 °C 31 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
21 Apr after 37.1 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
22 Apr after 37.0 °C 26 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Apr after 37.7 °C 24 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
24 Apr after 36.8 °C 26 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
25 Apr after 37.4 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Apr after 35.0 °C 32 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
27 Apr after 35.7 °C 40 % 31 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
28 Apr after 38.4 °C 23 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
29 Apr after 37.3 °C 27 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Apr 2018
After · 26 Apr 2018

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 · 132Every 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 Guinea ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Thionthian fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 April 2018 and 19 April 2018: 6 days 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 3,598 hectares (36.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Thionthian (3,614 ha, 5.7 %); Baguinet (6 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 40, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Guinea (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 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.