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Fallou fire, February 2020 Fallou, Dilly

Out · last detection 3 Mar 2020, 14:17 UTC

The fire started on 29 February 2020 in Fallou, Mali, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,119 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 38th largest in Koulikouro since 2016 (of 120 with a page). Number 19 in Mali in 2020, of 61.

Burnt area
3,119ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
29 Feb 2020 – 3 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
2
communes
Started on
29 Feb
2020
Heat detections
125
in a single hotspot: 82 MW
Danger at start
62
Extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.9GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

3 Mar 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Feb3 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2923

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

The weather it burned in

39°high
42km/h · peak gust
6%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

0% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 10 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Fallou where it started
    2,079 ha reached on 29 Feb
    0.7 %
  2. Dilly
    1,059 ha reached on 2 Mar
    0.2 %

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)
29 Feb 36.5 °C 7 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 62
1 Mar 36.7 °C 6 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
2 Mar 36.8 °C 8 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
3 Mar 38.7 °C 8 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
4 Mar after 39.4 °C 9 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
5 Mar after 39.9 °C 7 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
6 Mar after 39.5 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
7 Mar after 39.4 °C 9 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 57
8 Mar after 39.9 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
9 Mar after 39.4 °C 8 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
10 Mar after 36.0 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 63
11 Mar after 35.9 °C 8 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 59
12 Mar after 37.8 °C 8 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
13 Mar after 37.4 °C 9 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 60

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 22 Feb 2020
After · 10 Mar 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 · 125Every 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 Fallou fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 February 2020 and 3 March 2020: 4 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 3,119 hectares (31.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Fallou (2,079 ha, 0.7 %); Dilly (1,059 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.7 °C, humidity dropped to 6 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 68, 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.

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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.