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Wawa fire, 22 January 2016 Wawa, Amou, Akébou

Out · last detection 3 Feb 2016, 13:14 UTC

The fire started on 22 January 2016 in Wawa, Togo, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,571 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.

It is the 3th largest in Plateaux since 2016 (of 50 with a page). Number 2 in Togo in 2016, of 46.

Burnt area
6,571ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
13days
22 Jan 2016 – 3 Feb 2016
Municipalities hit
3
prefectures
Started on
22 Jan
2016
Heat detections
238
in a single hotspot: 97 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Feb 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 22 Jan3 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

222324252627282930313

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

The weather it burned in

32°high
40km/h · peak gust
7%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months 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. Wawa where it started
    4,323 ha reached on 22 Jan
    3.6 %
  2. Amou
    1,219 ha reached on 23 Jan
    0.7 %
  3. Akébou
    1,072 ha reached on 23 Jan
    1.0 %

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)
22 Jan 31.6 °C 23 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
23 Jan 31.9 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
24 Jan 29.6 °C 7 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
25 Jan 31.1 °C 12 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
26 Jan 27.7 °C 16 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Jan 29.2 °C 18 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
28 Jan 28.6 °C 16 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
29 Jan 29.1 °C 17 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
30 Jan 29.2 °C 15 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
31 Jan 30.9 °C 16 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
1 Feb 31.3 °C 12 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
2 Feb 31.2 °C 13 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
3 Feb 31.3 °C 20 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
4 Feb after 32.0 °C 28 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Feb after 33.5 °C 11 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
6 Feb after 32.4 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
7 Feb after 31.3 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
8 Feb after 31.9 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
9 Feb after 31.7 °C 12 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
10 Feb after 32.1 °C 10 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
11 Feb after 32.5 °C 9 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
12 Feb after 32.7 °C 17 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
13 Feb after 31.7 °C 30 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 15 Jan 2016
After · 10 Feb 2016

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 · 238Every 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 Togo ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Wawa fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 22 January 2016 to 3 February 2016 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 22 January 2016 to 30 January 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 6,571 hectares (65.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 3 municipalities: Wawa (4,323 ha, 3.6 %); Amou (1,219 ha, 0.7 %); Akébou (1,072 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 31.9 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 48, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Togo (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 ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0). 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.