Dilly fire, 4 November 2025 Dilly
The fire started on 4 November 2025 in Dilly, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 6,748 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 4th largest in Koulikouro since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 27 in Mali in 2025, of 282.
- Burnt area
- 6,748ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 4 Nov 2025 – 8 Nov 2025
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- communes
- Started on
- 4 Nov
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 80
- in a single hotspot: 160 MW
- Danger at start
- 50
- Extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 21 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
32% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 148 ha in 2020, 1,006 ha in 2021, 519 ha in 2023, 783 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,145 ha that had burned before.
- 993 ha Dilly fire, October 2021 3,937 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 783 ha Dilly fire, November 2024 3,835 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 148 ha Dilly fire, January 2020 2,075 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Dilly where it started6,798 ha reached on 4 Nov1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 Nov | 38.4 °C | 16 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 5 Nov | 38.0 °C | 15 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 50 |
| 6 Nov | 38.3 °C | 13 % | 17 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 7 Nov | 38.9 °C | 12 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 8 Nov | 37.8 °C | 17 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 50 |
| 9 Nov after | 38.2 °C | 19 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 10 Nov after | 38.1 °C | 16 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
| 11 Nov after | 36.8 °C | 20 % | 19 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 45 |
| 12 Nov after | 38.5 °C | 13 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
| 13 Nov after | 38.3 °C | 10 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 14 Nov after | 39.0 °C | 13 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 15 Nov after | 38.4 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 56 |
| 16 Nov after | 37.8 °C | 10 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 54 |
| 17 Nov after | 36.9 °C | 12 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 53 |
| 18 Nov after | 37.3 °C | 14 % | 16 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 52 |
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 5 November 2025 the air beside the fire reached 34 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 21: 1.4 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 · 80Every 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 Dilly fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 4 November 2025 and 8 November 2025: 5 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 6,748 hectares (67.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Dilly (6,798 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 38.9 °C, humidity dropped to 12 % and gusts hit 26 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 50, class Extreme.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Mali (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 ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)). 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.