Kaya fire, April 2024 Kaya, Mamdi
The fire started on 15 April 2024 in Kaya, Chad, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,826 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 8th largest in Lac since 2016 (of 44 with a page). Number 5 in Chad in 2024, of 71.
- Burnt area
- 5,826ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 15 Apr 2024 – 18 Apr 2024
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- departments
- Started on
- 15 Apr
- 2024
- Heat detections
- 217
- in a single hotspot: 208 MW
- Danger at start
- 71
- Very extreme · FWI index
- Energy released
- 3.1GW
- 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
35% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 620 ha in 2016, 1,798 ha in 2017. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,023 ha that had burned before.
- 938 ha Kaya fire, September 2017 2,472 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 331 ha Kaya fire, September 2016 2,887 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 267 ha Kaya fire, September 2017 2,574 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 185 ha Mamdi fire, June 2016 2,800 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 131 ha Kukawa fire, October 2017 2,363 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Kaya where it started4,394 ha reached on 14 Apr1.2 %
-
1,463 ha reached on 18 Apr0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Apr | 43.9 °C | 7 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 16 Apr | 44.7 °C | 9 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 71 |
| 17 Apr | 45.5 °C | 7 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 18 Apr | 45.5 °C | 7 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 77 |
| 19 Apr after | 44.1 °C | 9 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 81 |
| 20 Apr after | 43.2 °C | 10 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 21 Apr after | 43.8 °C | 10 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 22 Apr after | 43.7 °C | 13 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 23 Apr after | 45.7 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 72 |
| 24 Apr after | 46.3 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 67 |
| 25 Apr after | 45.8 °C | 8 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Extreme 65 |
| 26 Apr after | 46.1 °C | 9 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 74 |
| 27 Apr after | 43.4 °C | 12 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 78 |
| 28 Apr after | 44.0 °C | 8 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very extreme 82 |
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 20 April 2024 the air beside the fire reached 82 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 48: 3.2 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 · 217Every 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 Kaya fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 April 2024 and 18 April 2024: 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 5,826 hectares (58.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Kaya (4,394 ha, 1.2 %); Mamdi (1,463 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 45.5 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 35 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 77, 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.