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Yoto fire, December 2019 Yoto, Haho

Out · last detection 8 Jan 2020, 13:06 UTC

The fire started on 21 December 2019 in Yoto, Togo, and satellites saw it burning for 19 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,183 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the largest fire in Maritime since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 2 in Togo in 2019, of 31.

Burnt area
4,183ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
19days
21 Dec 2019 – 8 Jan 2020
Municipalities hit
2
prefectures
Started on
21 Dec
2019
Heat detections
198
in a single hotspot: 65 MW
Danger at start
10
Low · FWI index
Energy released
1.6GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

8 Jan 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 21 Dec8 Jan

How it evolved, day by day

2123242627282930311234568

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
34km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 5 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.9 mm on 11 Jan.

This area had burned before

30% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 428 ha in 2016, 144 ha in 2017, 785 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,250 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Yoto where it started
    2,582 ha reached on 21 Dec
    2.0 %
  2. Haho
    1,624 ha reached on 23 Dec
    0.6 %

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)
21 Dec 33.0 °C 55 % 29 km/h 0.6 mm Low 10
22 Dec 34.1 °C 46 % 26 km/h 0.3 mm Moderate 12
23 Dec 34.7 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
24 Dec 34.3 °C 32 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
25 Dec 34.6 °C 36 % 17 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
26 Dec 34.3 °C 40 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
27 Dec 34.3 °C 42 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
28 Dec 33.9 °C 45 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
29 Dec 34.9 °C 36 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 17
30 Dec 34.7 °C 30 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
31 Dec 34.0 °C 32 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
1 Jan 33.8 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
2 Jan 32.1 °C 26 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Jan 31.3 °C 25 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
4 Jan 31.8 °C 26 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
5 Jan 32.1 °C 29 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
6 Jan 33.0 °C 35 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
7 Jan 33.8 °C 35 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
8 Jan 34.8 °C 39 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
9 Jan after 35.2 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
10 Jan after 33.8 °C 52 % 26 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 20
11 Jan after 33.8 °C 58 % 33 km/h 3.9 mm Very low 4

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 14 Dec 2019
After · 15 Jan 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 · 198Every 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 Yoto fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 21 December 2019 to 8 January 2020 (19 days). The perimeter dates it from 28 December 2019 to 4 January 2020.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 4,183 hectares (41.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Yoto (2,582 ha, 2.0 %); Haho (1,624 ha, 0.6 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 34.9 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 34 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 27, class 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.