Aboudéia fire, 8 March 2026 Aboudéia, Bahr-Azoum
The fire started on 8 March 2026 in Aboudéia, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,493 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 144th largest in Salamat since 2016 (of 574 with a page). Number 53 in Chad in 2026, of 172.
- Burnt area
- 3,493ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 2days
- 8 Mar 2026 – 9 Mar 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- departments
- Started on
- 8 Mar
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 73
- in a single hotspot: 177 MW
- Danger at start
- 73
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,228 ha in 2017, 1,517 ha in 2019, 2,004 ha in 2021, 3,672 ha in 2023, 284 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,447 ha that had burned before.
- 1,944 ha Bahr-Azoum fire, February 2023 8,576 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,729 ha Bahr-Azoum fire, February 2021 17,295 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,669 ha Bahr-Azoum fire, December 2023 4,743 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,228 ha Bahr-Azoum fire, January 2017 15,433 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 604 ha Aboudéia fire, December 2019 2,421 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Aboudéia where it started2,314 ha reached on 8 Mar0.2 %
-
1,205 ha reached on 8 Mar0.0 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 Mar | 39.6 °C | 4 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 73 |
| 9 Mar | 39.0 °C | 5 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 70 |
| 10 Mar after | 39.9 °C | 2 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 11 Mar after | 40.0 °C | 3 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 75 |
| 12 Mar after | 41.2 °C | 5 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 13 Mar after | 42.4 °C | 5 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 14 Mar after | 42.4 °C | 11 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 68 |
| 15 Mar after | 41.9 °C | 9 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 16 Mar after | 40.9 °C | 10 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 62 |
| 17 Mar after | 41.5 °C | 10 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 18 Mar after | 38.9 °C | 7 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 63 |
| 19 Mar after | 39.5 °C | 7 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · CopernicusOn 9 March 2026 the air beside the fire reached 90 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 56: 3.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
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 · 73Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Aboudéia fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 March 2026 and 9 March 2026: 2 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 3,493 hectares (34.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Aboudéia (2,314 ha, 0.2 %); Bahr-Azoum (1,205 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 39.6 °C, humidity dropped to 4 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 73, class Very extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Chad (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.
Report an error
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 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.