Skip to content
worldfires
TD · Chad · →

Kaya fire, March 2016 Mamdi, Kaya

Out · last detection 6 Mar 2016, 13:15 UTC

The fire started on 2 March 2016 in Kaya, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,326 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 16th largest in Lac since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 77 in Chad in 2016, of 220.

Burnt area
3,326ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
2 Mar 2016 – 5 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
departments
Started on
2 Mar
2016
Heat detections
183
in a single hotspot: 112 MW
Danger at start
79
Very extreme · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

6 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Mar5 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

23456

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
42km/h · peak gust
9%lowest humidity

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

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Mamdi
    2,306 ha reached on 2 Mar
    0.5 %
  2. Kaya where it started
    1,040 ha reached on 2 Mar
    0.3 %

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)
2 Mar 44.2 °C 9 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
3 Mar 39.2 °C 10 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 79
4 Mar 39.0 °C 10 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 70
5 Mar 40.2 °C 9 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 71
6 Mar after 40.9 °C 8 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 66
7 Mar after 43.2 °C 8 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 58
8 Mar after 44.1 °C 9 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 64
9 Mar after 43.8 °C 8 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68
10 Mar after 43.5 °C 9 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
11 Mar after 41.9 °C 11 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 72
12 Mar after 39.2 °C 12 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very extreme 92
13 Mar after 36.9 °C 20 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 67
14 Mar after 37.0 °C 22 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 65
15 Mar after 38.8 °C 23 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 68

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Feb 2016
After · 12 Mar 2016

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 · 183Every 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 Chad ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Kaya fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 March 2016 and 5 March 2016: 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 3,326 hectares (33.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Mamdi (2,306 ha, 0.5 %); Kaya (1,040 ha, 0.3 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 44.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 79, 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
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy.

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.