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Fakala fire, April 2021 Fakala, Djenne Commune, Madiama

Out · last detection 10 Apr 2021, 02:12 UTC

The fire started on 5 April 2021 in Fakala, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,278 hectares from heat detections, spread across 4 municipalities.

It is the 46th largest in Mopti since 2016 (of 160 with a page). Number 17 in Mali in 2021, of 58.

Burnt area
3,278ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
5 Apr 2021 – 10 Apr 2021
Municipalities hit
4
communes
Started on
5 Apr
2021
Heat detections
115
in a single hotspot: 105 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

10 Apr 2021
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 5 Apr10 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

567810

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
52km/h · peak gust
3%lowest humidity

It had gone more than two months without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,014 ha in 2019, 812 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,295 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Fakala where it started
    1,976 ha reached on 5 Apr
    3.4 %
  2. Djenne Commune
    667 ha reached on 6 Apr
    2.4 %
  3. Madiama
    568 ha reached on 5 Apr
    3.3 %
  4. Femaye
    86 ha reached on 6 Apr
    0.5 %

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)
5 Apr 42.4 °C 5 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
6 Apr 42.8 °C 4 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
7 Apr 43.0 °C 3 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 75
8 Apr 42.5 °C 6 % 52 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 88
9 Apr 42.8 °C 6 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 84
10 Apr 43.9 °C 4 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 70
11 Apr after 43.6 °C 6 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 78
12 Apr after 43.3 °C 6 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
13 Apr after 43.2 °C 13 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
14 Apr after 40.3 °C 22 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
15 Apr after 41.9 °C 18 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
16 Apr after 42.8 °C 12 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
17 Apr after 39.1 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
18 Apr after 41.5 °C 8 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 61
19 Apr after 42.1 °C 7 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60
20 Apr after 42.4 °C 7 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 29 Mar 2021
After · 17 Apr 2021

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 · 115Every 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 Mali ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Fakala fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 5 April 2021 and 10 April 2021: 6 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 3,278 hectares (32.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 4 municipalities: Fakala (1,976 ha, 3.4 %); Djenne Commune (667 ha, 2.4 %); Madiama (568 ha, 3.3 %); Femaye (86 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 43.9 °C, humidity dropped to 3 % and gusts hit 52 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 88, class Very 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.

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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 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.