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CI · Côte d’Ivoire · –

Tiébissou fire, 3 February 2020 Tiébissou

Out · last detection 14 Feb 2020, 13:12 UTC

The fire started on 3 February 2020 in Tiébissou, Côte d’Ivoire, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,189 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 73th largest in Lacs since 2016 (of 116 with a page). Number 107 in Côte d’Ivoire in 2020, of 159.

Burnt area
1,189ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
12days
3 Feb 2020 – 14 Feb 2020
Municipalities hit
1
sub-prefectures
Started on
3 Feb
2020
Heat detections
36
in a single hotspot: 116 MW
Danger at start
51
Extreme · FWI index
Average daily power
43MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 3 Feb14 Feb
14 Feb 2020

How it evolved, day by day

3 Feb 2020 · 13 MW · 2 4 Feb 2020 · 18 MW · 3 5 Feb 2020 · 16 MW · 8 7 Feb 2020 · 5 MW · 1 8 Feb 2020 · 292 MW · 13 9 Feb 2020 · 6 MW · 4 10 Feb 2020 · 1 MW · 1 13 Feb 2020 · 30 MW · 2 14 Feb 2020 · 12 MW · 2
3 Feb 5 Feb 8 Feb 10 Feb 14 Feb

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
6%lowest humidity

It had gone 11 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 21 Feb.

This area had burned before

85% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,013 ha in 2016.

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. Tiébissou where it started
    1,197 ha reached on 3 Feb
    1.3 %

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)

Started with Very dry air: 23 % of the area in Côte d’Ivoire

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
3 Feb 36.9 °C 6 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
4 Feb 36.5 °C 8 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Feb 36.2 °C 14 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
6 Feb 34.7 °C 22 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Feb 37.0 °C 14 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
8 Feb 37.8 °C 7 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
9 Feb 36.2 °C 28 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
10 Feb 34.7 °C 38 % 26 km/h 0.4 mm High 36
11 Feb 34.2 °C 28 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
12 Feb 36.4 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
13 Feb 36.0 °C 20 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
14 Feb 36.7 °C 7 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
15 Feb after 37.6 °C 10 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
16 Feb after 38.6 °C 10 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
17 Feb after 37.9 °C 25 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
18 Feb after 37.7 °C 29 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
19 Feb after 37.6 °C 29 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Feb after 37.0 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.1 mm High 35
21 Feb after 38.1 °C 30 % 34 km/h 1.1 mm High 35

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 50.6, a minimum humidity of 6% and 11 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 39.

FWI at the start 50.6
Minimum humidity 6 %
Days without rain 11
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Dimandougou fire, February 2023
1,242 ha 4 days FWI 51.0 Min. humidity 6 % 157 km away, in 2023

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

What happened to them

4 days
median duration
1,304 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.0 mm
rain at the end (median; 18 of 39 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,189 ha against a median of 1,304 ha) and lasted 12 days, against 4 days.

In 21 of 39, 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 4.0 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

1.1 mmfirst rain
21 Feb7 days after it ended
38km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 14 Feb, and on 21 Feb 1.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 18 of 39, with a median of 4.0 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 · 27 Jan 2020
After · 21 Feb 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 · 36Every 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 Tiébissou fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 3 February 2020 to 14 February 2020 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 3 February 2020 to 10 February 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,189 hectares (11.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Tiébissou (1,197 ha, 1.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.8 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 53, class Extreme.
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: 39. Their median duration was 4 days and their median area 1,304 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 21 of 39, 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 4.0 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 10 February 2020 → 14 February 2020.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

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 3 February 2020 to 10 February 2020. 36 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.