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Tondon fire, 12 April 2017 Tondon, Sogolon

Out · last detection 20 Apr 2017, 13:26 UTC

The fire started on 12 April 2017 in Tondon, Guinea, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,408 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 51th largest in Kindia since 2016 (of 242 with a page). Number 33 in Guinea in 2017, of 172.

Burnt area
4,408ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
12 Apr 2017 – 19 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit
2
sub-prefectures
Started on
12 Apr
2017
Heat detections
226
in a single hotspot: 314 MW
Danger at start
29
High · FWI index
Energy released
9.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

20 Apr 2017
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Apr19 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

121314151617181920

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
40km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.9 mm on 28 Apr.

This area had burned before

11% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 500 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Tondon where it started
    2,751 ha reached on 12 Apr
    3.2 %
  2. Sogolon
    1,685 ha reached on 12 Apr
    2.9 %

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)
12 Apr 36.5 °C 32 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
13 Apr 37.7 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
14 Apr 36.5 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
15 Apr 36.9 °C 29 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
16 Apr 36.9 °C 30 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
17 Apr 36.6 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Apr 38.9 °C 24 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
19 Apr 38.4 °C 23 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
20 Apr after 36.1 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
21 Apr after 37.8 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
22 Apr after 35.7 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
23 Apr after 35.5 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.4 mm High 37
24 Apr after 36.1 °C 33 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Apr after 38.6 °C 21 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Apr after 38.4 °C 25 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
27 Apr after 36.1 °C 40 % 30 km/h 0.3 mm High 34
28 Apr after 35.0 °C 45 % 35 km/h 1.9 mm Moderate 18

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Apr 2017
After · 26 Apr 2017

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 · 226Every 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 Tondon fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 12 April 2017 and 19 April 2017: 8 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 4,408 hectares (44.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Tondon (2,751 ha, 3.2 %); Sogolon (1,685 ha, 2.9 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, 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.