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Tikaré fire, 5 December 2024 Tikaré, Kongoussi, Senguènèga

Out · last detection 15 Dec 2024, 01:54 UTC

The fire started on 5 December 2024 in Tikaré, Burkina Faso, and satellites saw it burning for 11 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 10,676 hectares from heat detections, spread across 5 municipalities.

It is the 6th largest in Koulsé since 2016 (of 235 with a page). Number 4 in Burkina Faso in 2024, of 380.

The power measured by the satellite is low (29.1 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
10,676ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
11days
5 Dec 2024 – 15 Dec 2024
Municipalities hit
5
communes
Started on
5 Dec
2024
Heat detections
317
in a single hotspot: 29 MW
Danger at start
52
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
2.2GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

15 Dec 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Dec15 Dec

How it evolved, day by day

6789101112131415

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
41km/h · peak gust
10%lowest humidity

It had gone 42 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.

What happened to each town

  1. Tikaré where it started
    9,014 ha reached on 6 Dec
    24 %
  2. Kongoussi
    1,142 ha reached on 12 Dec
    1.7 %
  3. Senguènèga
    306 ha reached on 6 Dec
    0.4 %
  4. Kossouka
    251 ha reached on 6 Dec
    1.3 %
  5. Rollo
    35 ha reached on 6 Dec
    0.1 %

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)
5 Dec 33.1 °C 13 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
6 Dec 32.1 °C 14 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
7 Dec 31.8 °C 15 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
8 Dec 30.9 °C 15 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
9 Dec 31.5 °C 14 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
10 Dec 33.6 °C 17 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
11 Dec 35.6 °C 14 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
12 Dec 35.3 °C 20 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
13 Dec 35.9 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
14 Dec 35.0 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 55
15 Dec 33.5 °C 10 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
16 Dec after 32.5 °C 13 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 54
17 Dec after 32.2 °C 14 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
18 Dec after 30.5 °C 15 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
19 Dec after 27.8 °C 19 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 53
20 Dec after 27.9 °C 20 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
21 Dec after 28.6 °C 19 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
22 Dec after 30.0 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
23 Dec after 30.6 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
24 Dec after 31.6 °C 14 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
25 Dec after 31.7 °C 12 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 28 Nov 2024
After · 22 Dec 2024

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 18 December 2024 the air beside the fire reached 123 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 97: 6.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak123 µg/m³
Days over the guideline16 days
PM10665 µg/m³
Optical depth0.46
3456789101112131415161718
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 317Every 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 Burkina Faso ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Tikaré fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 December 2024 and 15 December 2024: 11 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 10,676 hectares (106.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 5 municipalities: Tikaré (9,014 ha, 24 %); Kongoussi (1,142 ha, 1.7 %); Senguènèga (306 ha, 0.4 %); Kossouka (251 ha, 1.3 %); Rollo (35 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.9 °C, humidity dropped to 10 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Burkina Faso (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 (Institut Geographique Burkina (IGB)) (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.