Burned area
satellite only1,968ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 13 Mar 2020 – 24 Mar 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
CM · Cameroon · –
Waza fire, 13 March 2020 Waza
Out · last detection 24 Mar 2020, 12:41 UTC
The fire started on 13 March 2020 in Waza, Cameroon, and satellites saw it burning for 12 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,968 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 41th largest in Far North since 2016 (of 260 with a page). Number 50 in Cameroon in 2020, of 268.
The power measured by the satellite is low (19.4 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-26matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only12days
13 Mar 2020 to 24 Mar 2020: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 24 Mar 2020, 12:41 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only13 Mar 2020
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 13 Mar 2020
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only70
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 19 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 13 Mar 2020 – 24 Mar 2020
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only159MW
Total radiative power on 18 March 2020; hotspots that day: 24.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 18 Mar 2020
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model80.7FWI · very extreme
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 60.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 13 Mar 2020, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model43.9°C · 14% RH
High of 43.9 °C and minimum humidity of 14% on 24 March 2020; gusts of 37 km/h on 13 March 2020.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 13 Mar 2020 – 24 Mar 2020
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logLast day with fire: 20 March 2020 → 24 March 2020.
-
logStart date: 15 March 2020 → 13 March 2020.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 26 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 1,968 ha
- Dates
- 13 Mar 2020 – 24 Mar 2020
- Name
- Waza
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/waza-2020-03-3?v=2026-10-26A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire waza-2020-03-3.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-03-13 | 0 | 0 | 32.5 | 21.9 | 10 | 17.4 | 37.4 | 0 | 80.7 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-14 | 1 | 4 | 34.8 | 19.5 | 9 | 16.2 | 34.9 | 0 | 73 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-15 | 4 | 14 | 37.3 | 20.4 | 9 | 12.6 | 28.4 | 0 | 69.1 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-16 | 4 | 34 | 38.5 | 21.1 | 6 | 13.7 | 30.6 | 0 | 71.1 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-17 | 18 | 121 | 39.1 | 21.6 | 5 | 15 | 34.2 | 0 | 74.7 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-18 | 24 | 159 | 40.6 | 23.3 | 8 | 16.5 | 34.9 | 0 | 75.4 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-19 | 1 | 6 | 41.4 | 24 | 9 | 16 | 34.2 | 0 | 78.6 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-20 | 7 | 40 | 42 | 25.2 | 9 | 15.3 | 33.8 | 0 | 78.7 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-21 | 7 | 50 | 43.5 | 24.9 | 6 | 14.8 | 32.8 | 0 | 82.8 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-22 | 0 | 0 | 42.4 | 25.2 | 12 | 13.4 | 30.6 | 0 | 74.5 | muy_extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-23 | 0 | 0 | 43.5 | 29.9 | 19 | 10.4 | 28.4 | 0 | 65.8 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-24 | 4 | 18 | 43.9 | 27.7 | 14 | 13.6 | 32 | 0 | 57.3 | extremo | 1 |
| 2020-03-25 | 0 | 0 | 39.8 | 30.1 | 25 | 20.2 | 43.9 | 0 | 75.3 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2020-03-26 | 0 | 0 | 41.1 | 30 | 16 | 22.7 | 45.7 | 0 | 76.7 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2020-03-27 | 0 | 0 | 43.4 | 26.2 | 10 | 12 | 31 | 0 | 70 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2020-03-28 | 0 | 0 | 43.9 | 29.2 | 8 | 14.4 | 33.5 | 0 | 79 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2020-03-29 | 0 | 0 | 43.5 | 28.3 | 10 | 12.6 | 28.8 | 0 | 71.8 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2020-03-30 | 0 | 0 | 44.1 | 28.1 | 15 | 15.3 | 35.6 | 0 | 82.4 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2020-03-31 | 0 | 0 | 43.9 | 29.9 | 16 | 15 | 33.8 | 0 | 80.6 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2020-04-01 | 0 | 0 | 44.7 | 29.9 | 8 | 16.3 | 31.3 | 0 | 75 | muy_extremo | 0 |
| 2020-04-02 | 0 | 0 | 44 | 29.4 | 8 | 10.9 | 27.4 | 0 | 63.6 | extremo | 0 |
| 2020-04-03 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 29.2 | 8 | 13.7 | 28.1 | 0 | 67.3 | extremo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 1,968ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 12days
- 13 Mar 2020 – 24 Mar 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 13 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 70
- in a single hotspot: 19 MW
- Danger at start
- 81
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 49MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
13 Mar24 Mar
24 Mar 2020
How it evolved, day by day
14 Mar
16 Mar
18 Mar
20 Mar
24 Mar
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
44°high
37km/h · peak gust
5%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.
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Waza where it started1,981 ha reached on 14 Mar0.8 %
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 2020Built-up area0.10 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there were about 0.10 hectares of 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 Extreme FWI: 52 % of the area in Cameroon Very dry air: 32 % of the area in Cameroon 60 days without rain: 50 % of the area in Cameroon
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Mar | 32.5 °C | 10 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 14 Mar | 34.8 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 15 Mar | 37.3 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 69 |
| 16 Mar | 38.5 °C | 6 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 17 Mar | 39.1 °C | 5 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 18 Mar | 40.6 °C | 8 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 19 Mar | 41.4 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 20 Mar | 42.0 °C | 9 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 21 Mar | 43.5 °C | 6 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 83 |
| 22 Mar | 42.4 °C | 12 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 23 Mar | 43.5 °C | 19 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 66 |
| 24 Mar | 43.9 °C | 14 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 57 |
| 25 Mar after | 39.8 °C | 25 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 26 Mar after | 41.1 °C | 16 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 77 |
| 27 Mar after | 43.4 °C | 10 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 70 |
| 28 Mar after | 43.9 °C | 8 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 79 |
| 29 Mar after | 43.5 °C | 10 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 30 Mar after | 44.1 °C | 15 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 82 |
| 31 Mar after | 43.9 °C | 16 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 1 Apr after | 44.7 °C | 8 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 2 Apr after | 44.0 °C | 8 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 64 |
| 3 Apr after | 45.0 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 80.7, a minimum humidity of 10% and more than two months without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 26.
FWI at the start
80.7
Minimum humidity
10 %
Days without rain
60+
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Waza fire, 13 March 2020
1,968 ha
12 days
FWI 80.7
Min. humidity 10 %
Logone-Birni fire, February 2025
1,101 ha
9 days
FWI 80.7
Min. humidity 10 %
31 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Zina fire, February 2017
1,779 ha
4 days
FWI 81.0
Min. humidity 10 %
44 km away, in 2017
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Mora fire, February 2020
1,167 ha
4 days
FWI 78.9
Min. humidity 10 %
36 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Waza fire, March 2025
1,101 ha
18 days
FWI 79.4
Min. humidity 9 %
11 km away, in 2025
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Zina fire, February 2020
1,635 ha
5 days
FWI 79.4
Min. humidity 9 %
36 km away, in 2020
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
What happened to them
- 6 days
- median duration
- 1,426 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- —
- rain at the end (median; 0 of 26 had it)
It burned an area similar to its twins (1,968 ha against a median of 1,426 ha) and lasted 12 days, against 6 days.
In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
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
—first rain
—no rain in ten days
37km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 24 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. None of its 26 twins had rain when they ended.
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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 6 Mar 2020
After · 31 Mar 2020
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 70Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 25,743 haWaza 9 October 2026 · 35 days · 1 km away
- 13,934 haLogone-Birni 13 October 2026 · 30 days · 22 km away
- 7,957 haMoraOctober 2026 · 19 days · 26 km away
- 73,403 haZinaDecember 2025 · 80 days · 33 km away
- 7,599 haLogone-Birni8 February 2026 · 31 days · 34 km away
- 7,690 haLogone-Birni26 January 2026 · 47 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Waza fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 March 2020 to 24 March 2020 (12 days). The perimeter dates it from 15 March 2020 to 20 March 2020.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,968 hectares (19.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Waza (1,981 ha, 0.8 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 43.9 °C, humidity dropped to 5 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 83, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Cameroon (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: 26. Their median duration was 6 days and their median area 1,426 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In none of them did 1 mm fall in the ten days after the end: they all went out without rain.
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
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Last day with fire: 20 March 2020 → 24 March 2020.
- Start date: 15 March 2020 → 13 March 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
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 15 March 2020 to 20 March 2020. 70 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.
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 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). 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.